In the Face of the Cold 
IN THE FACE OF THE COLD 
When the full moon hangs high overhead, the snow creaks 
underfoot, the north wind roars with furious blast, and the 
trees of the forests crack in the frost with a report like that of 
cannon, then, hanging in its little nest on the bare branches of 
the wind-tossed trees, the tiny caterpillar of the Viceroy keeps 
the spark of life where men freeze and die. Nothing in the 
realm of nature is more wonderful than the manner in which 
some of the most minute animal forms resist cold. The genera 
Erebia and CEneis, and many species of the genus Brenthis , are, 
as we have already learned, inhabitants of the arctic regions or 
of lofty Alpine summits, the climate of which is arctic. Their 
caterpillars often hibernate in a temperature of from forty to 
fifty, and even seventy, degrees below zero, Fahrenheit. 
It has been alleged that caterpillars freeze in the winter and 
thaw out in the spring, at that time regaining their vitality. 
Thus far the writer is unable to ascertain that any experiments 
or observations have positively decided for or against this view. 
A number of recorded cases in which caterpillars are positively 
stated to have been frozen and to have afterward been found to 
be full of vitality when thawed are open to question. 
The most circumstantial account is that by Commander 
James Ross, R. N., F. R. S., quoted by Curtis in the Entomo¬ 
logical Appendix to the “Narrative” of Sir John Ross’s second 
voyage to the arctic regions. The specimens upon which the 
observations were made were the caterpillars of Laria rossi, a 
moth which is found abundantly in the arctic regions of North 
America. I quote from the account: “About thirty of the 
caterpillars were put into a box in the middle of September, and 
after being exposed to the severe winter temperature of the next 
three months, they were brought into a warm cabin, where, in 
less than two hours, every one of them returned to life, and 
continued for a whole day walking about; they were again ex¬ 
posed to the air at a temperature of about forty degrees below 
zero, and became immediately hard-frozen; in this state they 
remained a week, and on being brought again into the cabin, 
only twenty-three came to life; these were, at the end of four 
hours, put out once more into the air and again hard-frozen; 
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