of time. Then it dived again, and distanced its pursuer so easily
that he gave over the chase and rested upon his oars. But the bird
made a final plunge, and, when it emerged upon the surface again,
it was over a mile away. Its course must have been, and doubtless
was, an actual flight under water, and half as fast as the crow
flies in the air.

The loon would have delighted the old poets. Its wild, demoniac
laughter awakens the echoes on the solitary lakes, and its ferity
and hardiness are kindred to those robust spirits.



XII

One notable difference between man and the four-footed animals
which has often occurred to me is in the eye, and the greater
perfection, or rather supremacy, of the sense of sight in the human
species. All the animals--the dog, the fox, the wolf, the deer, the
cow, the horse--depend mainly upon the senses of hearing and smell.
Almost their entire powers of discrimination are confined to these
two senses. The dog picks his master out of the crowd by smell, and
the cow her calf out of the herd. Sight is only partial
recognition. The question can only be settled beyond all doubt by
the aid of the nose. The fox, alert and cunning as he is, will pass
within a few yards of the hunter and not know him from a stump. A
squirrel will run across your lap, and a marmot between your feet,
if you are motionless. When a herd of cattle see a strange object,
they are not satisfied till each one has sniffed it; and the horse
is cured of his fright at the robe, or the meal-bag, or other