I could not get
away from the thought that it would add much to the wealth of the world
if the mountains were removed and cast into the sea. Not only that, but
it would curb to some extent the ragings of this same turbulent sea,
which was rolling and tossing us about for no really good reason that I
could discover. The Atlantic had lost much of its romance and mystery
for me, and I wondered if I had ever felt the enthusiasm which I heard
expressed on all sides.
"There she spouts!" came from a dozen voices, and the whole passenger
list crowded the port rail, just to see a cow whale throwing up streams
of water, not immensely larger than the streams of milk which my cow
Holsteins throw down. The crowd seemed to take great pleasure in this
sight, but to me it was profitless.
I have known the day when I could watch the graceful leaps and dives of
a school of porpoises, as it kept with easy fin, alongside of our ocean
greyhound, with pleasure unalloyed by any feeling of non-utility. But
now these "hogs of the sea" reminded me of my Chester Whites, and the
comparison was so much in favor of the hogs of the land, that I turned
from these spectacular, useless things, to meditate upon the price of
pork.
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