LARVAE FROZEN. 189 



of ice ! Alas ! we shall exclaim, then there is an 

 end to their life when that takes place ; and, 

 undoubtedly, the severity of such a degree of 

 cold destroys large numbers ; yet, strange to say, 

 some larvse actually revive, even after they have 

 been thus frozen into hard inanimate lumps. One 

 observer states that he has found them in this 

 condition; and so entirely congealed, that they 

 chinked like small stones when dropped into a 

 glass tumbler ! yet they revived after careful 

 management. In an experiment made during 

 Sir John Ross's voyage to the arctic regions, upon 

 the larvae of a moth, they were four successive 

 times exposed to the intense cold of 40 below 

 zero, and four times they revived again on being 

 brought into the warm atmosphere of the cabin. 

 Experiments have also been made by other persons 

 with a like result. It may, therefore, be consi- 

 dered certain that some larvaa will bear to be frozen 

 into solid masses, so that they will snap asunder 

 like an icicle, and yet return to life again ; and 

 even go through all their stages of development, 

 into the perfect insect. How remarkable a fact 

 this is, when we remember the deadly effect of 

 frost upon man and the higher animals ! 



