Page:The birds of Tierra del Fuego - Richard Crawshay.djvu/55

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PREFACE
xxxiii

Mussel (Mytilus magellanicus) and a large Limpet {Patella cenea). A large and handsome Volute (Voluta magellanica) is the most striking of all.

Freshwater and Land species, as might be expected in so unfavourable a climate, are insignificant in number and importance: the former are represented by Limnæa and Chilina; the latter by Perronia, Succinea, and Amphidoxa, all small.

Earth Worms obtained by me in various parts of the island, have been determined by Mr. F. E. Beddard as Acanthodrilidæ, genus Chilota, known to occur in Patagonia and South Africa.

LAST WORDS


"Whoever you are, come travel with me!
Travelling- with me you find what never tires—The Earth never tires.
The Earth is rude, silent, incomprehensible at first.
Nature is rude and incomprehensible at first.
Be not discouraged, keep on, there are divine things well enveloped.
I swear to you there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell."


Quaint simple lines are these of Walt Whitman, yet how profound is the truth they convey!

As a wanderer in many lands. I live more and more in distant scenes. It is, then. I find, ever the elemental which constitutes the magnet of attraction, rather than the work of man—the primeval forest or desert or ocean rather than the great city; the giant tree rather than the imposing building; solitude and silence rather than the stir and hum of the vast community.

In the many complexities and unrealities of modern civilization. I seem to have no abiding place.

Often, and often, am I back in Tierra del Fuego.

Distance and time are annihilated. All is with me in sense, just as when there:— the exquisitely subdued tone of everything in land and sky and sea;—the soft sunlight resembling bright moonlight rather than the light of day;—the solemn enduring