SIBERIA. 



Ill 



the caterpillar of the JVonagria paludicola, which lives in the stubble of 

 the arundo jjhragmites, makes internally a circular opening in one of the 

 sides of the stalk, being careful to preserve the epidermis. All that the 

 perfect insect has to do in order to get out is to pierce that sort of a mem- 

 brane. In many Sahtrnice the cocoon being closed at one end by a net- 

 work of convergent threads, all tliat the butterfly has to do is to sofien 

 these, which it does by a fluid wliich it emits, and a passage is then open 

 for its egress; but as these threads are very elastic they sometimes re- 

 turn to their former position, and it is only by its weight that the depar- 

 ture of the chrysalis ran be known. 



When the butterfly first comes forth from its chrysalis it is very weak ; 

 all its parts are soft, without consistence and full of moisture. Its wings 

 are drooping, contracted, and exhibit but little of the figure tliat they are 

 to have in the course of a few moments. Meanwhile it fixes itself 

 against a branch or against the sides of its cocoon, stretches out each of 

 its organs in succession, making from time to time a slight rustling with 

 its wings, which grow and develope themselves much like the leaves of 

 a tree. When they hav-e acquired their normal size, the insect moves 

 them up and down alternately for tlie purpose of evaporating the liquid 

 with which they are still saturated, and ordinarily at the end of half an 

 hour they are prepared to fulfill all their functions. 



SIBERIA, NO. II. 



A remarkable phenomenon called Zeplot welcr (warm wind) occurs 

 during this rigorous weather, blowing from S. E. by S. It begins some- 

 time suddenly when the sky is quite clear, and raises the temperature in 

 mid-winter from -47° to 35°; so thai the plates of ice, whiclr are substi- 

 tutes for glass in the windows, begin to melt. It seldom contmues 

 longer than twenty-four hours. 



Although the climate is one of the most inhospitable in the world, 

 yet it is by no means unhealthy. Here neither scurvy, nor any infectious 

 disease prevails. Catarrhal fever and complaints of the eyes are the prin- 

 ciple ailments to which the inhabitants are snbject. The former are 

 connected with the thick fogs in October and the beginning of the severe 

 frosts in December; and the latter are caused chiefly by the reflection 

 from the snow, which is so poweiiul as to require a protector to be worn 

 over them. 



An optical illusion, occasioned by the peculiar nature of the atmos- 

 phere, similar in many respects to the mirage of the sandy desert, here 

 presents itself: "'As we gazed," the narrator informs us, '■^we thought we 



