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parison of the lemurs, if they were discussed here, would make this an interminable paper. The matter of "living fossils," such as the duck-billed platypus, or of dead "fossil links," like the archeopteryx, would take a large space for due investigation. It need only be said that the platypus is now the same creature that we have always known-and so, for the matter of that, is the whale-and the archæopteryx reads more like a "hybrid monstrosity" than a "link." A solitary and feeble link weakens rather than strengthens a chain.

I have started in this paper with surmises about the cellular origin of men and of brutes. I have tried to base the surmises upon analogies; then, plunging at once into anthropoid apeland, have hardly left it again. It appears as though the more recent researches were not improving the chances of our muchcherished kinship-of our simian ancestry. They have helped to fix "species," they point plainly to varieties of species, and to the possibility that we and all living things have evolved from our primitive selves, at various periods of the evolution of the planet itself, and that something like a general ground-plan exists throughout life-vegetable life or animal life. They seem to say that the lines of evolution have never changed, and that the fish-reptile-birdmammal and human ascent or descent is possibly a mythical solution of our earnest attempts to unravel a story which perhaps after all is only difficult because of its real simplicity. Every mastered discovery of science has been at first so difficult to conjecture, but presently has become more simple, as the triumphs of fresh investigations have here displaced errors and there added new light.

It has been said that the progress of truth, ever upward, is in a spiral curve, and that a step backward may be of great value.

W. T. FREEMAN.

51

I

ABDUCTED BY ALBATROSSES.

WAS struck, when in Kerguelen's Land, by the size of the albatrosses, of which there is a breed there truly Titanic. I thought of bringing home a few of the largest of these cyclopean feathered ichthyophagista, and presenting them to the Zoological Gardens of New York.

In the usual manner, with line and bait, I caught twelve magnificent specimens--exceptionally fine birds, not one measuring less than twenty feet over the expanded wings.

Fearing they would pine in confinement, instead of caging them, I fitted each with a set of harness, to which was attached a very long cord. The other end of the cord I fastened to the ring of an iron peg driven into the ground. This mode of tedder I thought more humane than fastening the cord to the leg: the harness distributed the pull over the whole body and prevented strain. Thus there were twelve of these gigantic birds fastened to the ring by cords, and as each cord was fifty feet long, they were able to soar and exercise their pinions. For the sake of cleanliness, every day I moved the iron peg to new ground. One morning I was moving the peg, when the birds, all soaring together, nearly pulled me off my legs. My crew, who were standing in a group round, laughed. For sailors are light-hearted fellows, ever on the watch for an excuse to be merry, and will often make a jest of what is not in itself inhe rently ludicrous. What was a comedy to them was the beginning of a tragedy for me. They leered, nudged each other, sly jokes went round as I made frantic efforts to hold the winged Titans.

No one likes to be laughed at. I lost my temper. I vented my anger on the birds; I shook the ropes, and shouted at the contumacious aërophyles. My voice and actions frightened the birds, stimulating them to further exertions. They began to vibrate their wings with irresistible force.

To my horror, I felt myself being carried up into the air. I called upon my men for assistance, but it was too late; I was elevated beyond their reach. They were serious enough now. They implored me to drop into their arms, and let the darned birds go.

But I was afraid. The distance was now considerable. If they failed to catch me, bones would be broken.

In a few minutes I was up hundreds of feet in the air, and sailing over the sea. The hard, solid ground and pointed rocks had been left behind. My sailors (I could still hear their voices) advised me to drop into the water. They knew me to be an expert swimmer— or at least good enough to keep afloat until they picked me up with a boat which they ran to launch.

Alas! the high dive always alarmed me. I used to be a long time making up my mind to take a header from the high-dive board at the swimming baths, and this was elevated only twelve feet from the water. South Sea Islanders think nothing of such feats, but I am not a savage. Civilised life, maybe, has somewhat deteriorated my nerves and softened my muscles. The idea of a fall of magnitude appalled me. Merely measuring the distance with my eyes made me sick and dizzy. I shut my eyes and clung convulsively to the iron peg.

Still, I felt it must be done, I was going rapidly out to sea. Already the land was lost in the fog. Every yard I travelled decreased my chance of eventual escape.

I said to myself, "I will count one-two-three, and then let go " -counting thus is a common device when courage is slack. I counted several times, but balked every time. I could not let go. My hands were hypnotised by the peril, and had got beyond my control. They clung convulsively to the peg. Instead of releasing myself, I climbed up, hand over hand, and frantically clung to the cords with my legs.

I gave myself up for lost. It was too late to dive down now, for I was already twenty miles from land, at the lowest calculation. I am a fair swimmer. I am good for a mile. But twenty miles ?—— no. The late Captain Webb, who perished at Niagara, would think nothing of twenty miles. But I am not formed like that celebrated natatorial hero: I have not his voluminous muscles and prodigious aquatic staying powers.

The birds, flying in an inclined plane, making an angle of three degrees with the aqueous fluid beneath, had been gradually getting higher. My eyes were fast shut, but I knew the altitude was increasing by the ever-decreasing sound of the wash of the waves. was sick unto death with that long agony. The sound of the twelve pairs of vibrating wings merged in one dreary, indeterminate swishswish.

I opened my eyes and gazed at the birds. I saw them, but

with a terrible exaggeration, for my senses were no longer correct registers of facts. The albatrosses seemed to have expanded to a hypernatural size, and to have something diabolical in their air and manner, as if they rejoiced at human torture, and were congratulating cach other on their successful act of retribution. I knew the thought was grotesque-I was becoming delirious.

I fancied I saw them fashion the syllables of my name : and I shuddered because no sound came. I implored them to be merciful. Then their forms changed to spectres, with heads of flame, which mocked my prayer.

I knew that I was going mad-that I was mad. By a mighty effort I subdued the fever of my fancy, and recovered my reason. How happy was I to feel my thoughts lose their nightmare incoherence and regain a just appreciation of circumstance!

Then followed a fear that my judgment might again succumb, and Fantasy resume her dominion.

Still the titanic figures lifted and bore me upwards. A hideous dizziness oppressed me at the mere idea of the interminableness of the descent if I should fall.

So far I had only once or twice opened my eyes, and then only for a few moments. I longed to, yet dared not, employ my vision: if I looked up I feared to look upon things horrible; down, I was aghast at the idea there might be nothing to see-nothing substantial— nothing but floating mist.

Next I became conscious that I was descending. I knew it by reason of the waves far off, the tumbling water beneath, becoming every moment louder and nearer. The plane of flight had been altered. It had pointed upward, now it trended downward. What the precise angle was I dared not inquire. There came into my mind the horrible thought that these diabolical birds now designed to drown me. The cords were fifty feet long. As soon as I fell to an elevation less than this, I would be plunged in the water.

I began to reflect what a dreadful death drowning is. I once drowned a mouse. I recalled the scene. The poor little thing struggled wildly for minutes ere the end came. I shed tears as I watched it, until the bubbles came which told me the water had entered the lungs and all was over. Now I wept over my own coming fate. No eyes would shed tears for me when the fatal bubbles appeared; the demon birds would rejoice.

At length, with a wild desperation at heart, I quickly unclosed my eyes. My worst fears were confirmed; the plane of flight led rapidly downwards. I fancied I read in the countenances of the

fiendish birds murderous intent, malicious satisfaction, and immovable resolution.

No dog in hydrophobia dreaded the water more than I did now. A fearful idea drove the blood in torrents to my heart: when I was in the water, perhaps a shark might come by and pick me up. This would be worse than drowning. I would then become part of the body of a voracious fish; my flesh would be transformed into the tissue of an anthropophagist. I trembled convulsively in every fibre. Perspiration broke from every pore, and stood in cold big beads upon my forehead.

I sank into a state I cannot define. Shadows of memory told me of tall figures of birds that were bearing me down, down, to perdition I snapped at and bit the rope. I kept muttering "Down, down down"; but the words were mechanically repeated, and ceased to bear a meaning to me.

Another mighty effort, the last spurt of expiring intellect, was followed by the return of sanity, and capability of exercising the reasoning powers.

I attempted to deduce my real position. Was hope altogether excluded? I inquired. The boat was out. If it fell in with me, I could cut myself free from the albatrosses.

The birds having fallen to a distance of about a hundred feet from the water, the plane of flight became parallel to that mobile but inelastic fluid. The fear of immediate death was removed. The moral torture lessened, the physical pain became more acute. The agony of the strain on my legs and arms grew intolerable. I was beginning to feel cramp. My muscles spasmodically gathered into hard, knotted cords. I passed the iron pin through my belt and set my arms and legs free. The relief was great. My confusion of mind was such that I had not before thought of this simple expedient.

Now that my frame was more at ease, my mind became more uneasy. My eyes, starting from their sockets, sought for a rescue boat. The field of vision was small, owing to the thick mist. Νο ark was in sight, nor could my ears catch the sound of oars. despaired.

I

I estimated the rate of flight of the birds, and calculated I must be at least thirty miles from land. Would the boat come so far? Was there any rational expectation of their finding me in the fog? Alas! but little. Was there any ?-none at all. I looked at the compass I wore as a charm on my watch-chain--a pretty little silver trifle presented to me as a parting gift by one I loved well- I looked

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