WINTER WORK. (7 



ponder over the mystery of hybernation. Why these 

 animals should thus pass away the winter we can 

 perhaps see change of climate and scarcity of food 

 render it necessary ; but how it is done is beyond our 

 ken. We see it in all sorts of creatures in the 

 great Brown Bear in the forests of Eussia, in the 

 Marmot, in the Squirrel, down to the tiny caterpillar 

 not the tenth part of an inch in length. We see it 

 again in those weird creatures the Bats. Go into 

 some sheltered cave and you will probably find num- 

 bers of these creatures hanging by their claws to 

 the roof, head downwards, their wings closely 

 enwrapped around them not a sign of life, not 

 even any perceptible breathing. It is not merely 

 sleep, you may rouse up an animal from its ordinary 

 sleep, and it does not take long to collect its 

 faculties ; unlike the lords of the creation, there is 

 no stretching of linibs and rubbing of eyes, the 

 creature springs up from slumber and is on the alert 

 at once. But not so with hybernation ; it takes 

 some time to rouse a bat, the wakening comes very 

 gradually and is generally fatal. It is evidently a 

 much nearer approach to death than sleep is the 

 breathing is so slight as to defy investigation, and 

 the blood courses so sluggishly along that you can 

 detect no pulsation ; the air in which the creature 

 passes the winter, undergoes no change, and 

 strangest of all the animal will exist for some 

 time in gases that would be inimediatety fatal to it if 

 awake. I just refer briefly to these points in the hope 

 of provoking a discussion on the subject presently, 

 By thus exploring caves and other suitable spots, we 

 may become acquainted with some species of bats 



