And so is a rhinoceros's horn. A rhinoceros used to be
hairy all over in old times: but now he carries all his hair on the end
of his nose, except a few bristles on his tail. And the right-whale, not
to be done in oddity, carries all his on his gums.

But have no whales any hair?

No real whales: but the Manati, which is very nearly a whale, has long
bristly hair left. Don't you remember M.'s letter about the one he saw
at Rio Janeiro?

This is all very funny: but what is the use of knowing so much about
things' teeth and hair?

What is the use of learning Latin and Greek, and a dozen things more
which you have to learn? You don't know yet: but wiser people than you
tell you that they will be of use some day. And I can tell you, that if
you would only study that gar-fish long enough, and compare him with
another fish something like him, who has a long beak to his lower jaw,
and none to his upper--and how he eats I cannot guess,--and both of them
again with certain fishes like them, which M. Agassiz has found lately,
not in the sea, but in the river Amazon; and then think carefully enough
over their bones and teeth, and their history from the time they are
hatched--why, you would find out, I believe, a story about the river
Amazon itself, more wonderful than all the fairy tales you ever read.

Now there is luncheon ready. Come down below, and don't tumble down the
companion-stairs; and by the time you have eaten your dinner we shall be
very near the shore.

* * * * *

So? Here is my little man on deck, after a good night's rest. And he
has not been the least sick, I hear.

Not a bit: but the cabin was so stuffy and hot, I asked leave to come on
deck. What a huge steamer! But I do not like it as well as the yacht.
It smells of oil and steam, and--

And pigs and bullocks too, I am sorry to say. Don't go forward above
them, but stay here with me, and look round.

Where are we now? What are those high hills, far away to the left, above
the lowlands and woods?

Those are the shore of the Old World--the Welsh mountains.

And in front of us I can see nothing but flat land. Where is that?

That is the mouth of the Severn and Avon; where we shall be in half an
hour more.

And there, on the right, over the low hills, I can see higher ones, blue
and hazy.

Those are an island of the Old World, called now the Mendip Hills; and we
are steaming along the great strait between the Mendips and the Welsh