probably permanent separation from all I loved in old England. I never quite abandoned the hope of one day escaping from this subaqueous life and visiting the scenes of my younger days. I felt enervated by the pursuits that occupied so much of the time of the Colymbians, and I longed to feel my feet once more on terra firma, even though I should have to support again the whole weight of my body, and to contend daily and hourly with the force of gravitation. At times the more than Sybarite softness of existence in this tepid lagoon would inspire me with disgust, and I longed to feel my cheek fanned and my pulses quickened by the fresh breezes of my native land.
My companions would frequently rally me on the sadness I in vain endeavoured to conceal, and when they had wormed from me the secret of my melancholy, they would launch out into praises of the aquatic life, and draw comparisons between the aquatic and terrestrial existence, wholly unfavourable to the latter.
Sometimes I would suffer myself to be convinced by their arguments, and for a while would throw off my low spirits and heartily enter into all their amusements; but the longing for home and terrestrial life would ever recur, and I could not bring myself to think that I was destined to pass my whole existence in this fish-like manner. The winds and tempests they so much dreaded seemed to me to be infinitely preferable to the dead calm that reigned in this submarine abode; and I often felt that I could with delight exchange this luxurious monotony of voluptuous ease for the bleakest and bitterest weather on the flat shore of my native Norfolk.
Hence, as there seemed no prospect of deliverance from the life into which I had been so wonderfully
