158 



EAGLE. 



me, that lie saw a large tree cut down, containing- the nest of a Bald 

 Eagle, in which were two young, one of which appeared nearly three 

 times as large as the other. As a proof of their attachment to their 

 young, a person near Norfolk informed me, that in clearing a piece of 

 woods on his place, they met with a large dead pine tree, on which 

 was a Bald Eagle's nest and young. The tree being on fire more than 

 half way up, and the flames rapidly ascending, the parent Eagle darted 

 around and among the flames, until her plumage was so much injured, 

 that it was with difficulty she could make her escape, and even then 

 she several times attempted to return to relieve her offspring. 



" No bird provides more abundantly for its young than the Bald Eagle. 

 Fish are daily carried thither in numbers, so that they sometimes lie 

 scattered round the tree, and the putrid smell of the nest may be dis- 

 tinguished at the distance of several hundred yards. 



" The flight of the Bald Eagle, when taken into consideration with 

 the ardour and energy of his character, is noble and interesting. Some- 

 times the human eye can just discern him, like a minute speck, moving 

 in slow curvatures along the face of the heavens, as if reconnoitring 

 the earth at that immense distance. Sometimes he glides along in a 

 direct horizontal line, at a vast height, with expanded and unmoving 

 wings, till he gradually disappears in the distant blue ether. Seen 

 gliding in easy circles over the high shores and mountainous cliffs that 

 tower above the Hudson and Susquehanna, he attracts the eye of the 

 intelligent voyager, and adds great interest to the scenery. At the 

 great cataract of Niagara, already mentioned, there rises from the gulf 

 into which the fall of the horse-shoe descends, a stupendous column 

 of smoke or spray, reaching to the heavens, and moving off in large 

 black clouds, according to the direction of the wind, forming a very 

 striking and majestic appearance. The Eagles are here seen sailing 

 about, sometimes losing themselves in this thick column, and again re- 

 appearing in another place, with such ease and elegance of motion, as 

 renders the whole truly sublime: 



" High o'er the watery uproar silent seen, 

 Sailing sedate in majesty serene, 

 Now midst the pillar'd spray sublimely lost, 

 And now, emerging, down the rapids tost, 

 Glides the Bald Eagle, gazing, calm and slow, 

 O'er all the horrors of the scene below ; 

 Intent alone to sate himself with blood, 

 From the torn victims of the raging flood. 



"The Eagle is said to live to a great age — sixty, eighty, and, as some 

 assert, one hundred years. This circumstance is remarkable, when we 



