THE PETREL. 
253 
and of three hundred yards or more in breadth, not 
scattered, hut flying as compactly, and as close, as 
the free movement of their wings will allow, and 
passing, for a full hour or more, with a swiftness little 
inferior to that of a pigeon. On these data, it has 
been calculated that the number in such a flight 
would amount to one hundred and fifty-one million, 
five hundred thousand birds ! about one-fifth of the 
whole population of the globe. These birds live 
and breed in burrows, and the number of burrows 
required to lodge such a flock would not be far 
short of seventy-six millions ; and allowing a square 
yard for each burrow, the space covered would be 
something more than twenty-four and a half square 
miles, or nearly fifteen thousand six hundred and 
eighty acres of ground ! 
And though in such cheerless solitudes, man 
would soon perish for want of sustenance, living food 
seems to be placed there by Providence to a greater 
extent than in any other known parts of the habit- 
able globe. Countless as are the myriads of these 
birds, still more countless, by millions and millions 
of figures, are the lesser marine beings on which 
they feed. Some idea may be formed of their abun- 
dance, by calculating the length of time that would 
be requisite for a certain number of persons to 
count the quantity contained in one square mile of 
sea-water. Allowing that one person could count a 
million in seven days, which is barely possible, it 
has been calculated that no less than eighty thousand 
persons should have started at the creation of the 
world, nearly six thousand years ago, to complete 
the calculation to the present time ! And, if passing 
