22 
HOOPER OR WILD SWAN. 
On this pond also has been killed the Hooper, or wild 
swan, whose grand trumpeting note I have heard while 
skaiting here by moonlight ; and though I cannot say that 
in this sound there is anything in the way of a song, 
yet to me it is noble and pleasing. By the way, I would 
remark that I recollect nothing in Virgil, who is, and ever 
shall be, the poet of Nature, that leads me to suppose 
that he considered the swan a bird of song. I w ill give 
one or two passages which occur to me at this moment, 
which, if not very precisely quoted, will certainly convey 
the poet's meaning : — 
Ceu quondum nivei liquida inter nubila cycni 
Cum sese e pastii referunt, et longa canoros 
Dant per colla modos : sonat amnis, et Asia loiige 
Pulsa palus. 
Nec quisquam aeratas acies ex agmine lanto 
Misceri putet, aeriam sed gurgite ab alto 
Urgeri volucrum raucariim ad litora iiubem. 
Now, I grant the word ' canoros,' by a critic disposed to 
make swans sing, might be translated ^warbling,' 'melo- 
dious : ' but its true meaning is ' loud,' ' shrill : ' but sup- 
posing the swan-singers translate the word 'warbling,' how 
in the name of fortune, will such a translation agi*ee with 
point of land ; once or twice the water grew a few inches deeper, or perhaps 
only seemed to do so as a larger wave than usual passed by me, but soon it was 
regularly and gradually shallower, and then one of my two companions took to 
water and followed in my wake, and thus we walked with all imaginable com- 
posure to the shore. I have often thought it must have been a fine sight, had 
there been lookers on, to see us gradually growing taller and taller as the water 
grew shallower and shallower. When the capsized craft had drifted conside- 
rably towards the land, my other companion was rescued by a horseman who 
backed his steed into the water and took the shivering sailor up behind 
h\m.-~E. N. 
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