The Glaucous-winged Gull 
Taken in Seattle Photo by the Author 
PORTRAIT OF GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL 
upon you with level eye, and rebuking by his very blue-gray calm the 
pomp and madness of men. This throbbing ferry-boat grimly intent upon 
the business of getting its human freight from shore to shore, is still our 
best serviceable solution of the transportation problem. The gull fur¬ 
nishes his own conveyance, simple, subtile, compact, yet elegant beyond 
the powers of art, and adequate beyond the dream of engineers. Effort¬ 
less, noiseless, tireless, he views from a thousand easy angles your muddled 
helplessness, and mocks by a thousand airy caprices your tedious destiny 
as freight. 
You have escaped for the nonce from the counting-room, fetid with 
usurious plots; his business has always been conducted in the open, his 
many farings vised by the sun, and his lodging-places purified by the gen¬ 
tle rains. You are concerned about your clothing, and you dress labori¬ 
ously for “the occasion’’; his wardrobe is always on his back, well-fitting, 
seasonable, and “correct.’’ You, poor human, are worried about the in- 
