290 THE UNIVEKSE. 



CHAPTEE VII. 



MINERS AND MASONS. 



Every traveller who approaches the shores of the 

 southern seas is struck by the sight of the innumerable 

 flocks of penguins which swarm upon them. 



Birds in their radical organization, they are quite fish 

 in their habits. Their wings, transformed into fins, render 

 them unfit for flight, and their feet are only suited for 

 swimming. Hence, not being able to rise in the air or 

 escape by running, they stumble and fall to the ground at 

 every step they take when they are trying to escape from 

 some aggressor. The sailors calculate upon their falling, 

 in order to kill them, and often make a complete massacre 

 of them. But the scene changes so soon as ever the 

 penguins gain the Avater, their favourite element. They 

 precipitate themselves into it from the tops of rocks ten to 

 fifteen feet above the waves, and having reached the sea, 

 dive and swim with a swiftness which mocks that of the 

 largest fish, and utterly confounds the smaller ones — their 

 habitual prey. 



Seated on their tails, and always in an upright position 

 on the shore, these birds, scattered about in innumerable 

 bands, with their Avhite bellies and their black cowls and 

 cloaks, recall the costume of certain religious corpora- 

 tions ; a fact Avhicli has made all the sailors compare them 

 to a procession of penitents. 



