HIBBING 



3981 



HICKS 



Ribbing. Mining town of Min- 

 nesota, U.S.A., in St. Louis co. It 

 stands on Duluth river, 82 m. 

 N.W. of Duluth, and is served by 

 the Great Northern and other rlys. 

 Lumbering is engaged in, but the 

 town is chiefly noted for the ex- 

 tensive iron mines, including the 

 Mesabi iron ore range in the 

 neighbourhood, which yield an 

 enormous output, mostly of red 

 hematite nearly 60 p.c. of the 

 country's production. Pop. 17,5,50. 

 Hibernation (Lat. hibernare, to 

 pass the winter). Dormant or 

 torpid condition in which many 

 animals and plants pass through 

 the winter. In the case of animals 

 it may be complete or intermittent. 

 It is not so much caused by cold as 

 generally supposed, but by the lack 

 of food which cold produces. Thus, 

 the absence of foliage causes large 

 numbers of insects and molluscs to 

 pass the winter in a torpid state. 

 This causes the insectivorous birds 

 to migrate in autumn to warmer 

 countries where food is plentiful. 



This expedient is not available for 

 the mammals and reptiles, so after 

 laying up a store of fat in their tis- 

 sues, they retire into winter quarters 

 and fall asleep. The British bats, 

 which are entirely insectivorous, re- 

 tire to caves, hollow trees, and the 

 roofs of dwellings; but some of them 

 are very sensitive to a rising of out- 

 door temperature, and come out 

 for an occasional winter flight and 

 feast upon the insects that have 

 also been awakened. Some species, 

 like the squirrel and dormouse, 

 provide for such intervals by lay- 

 ing up secret caches of nuts and 

 grain to which they can resort, 

 afterwards resuming their sleep. 

 During this period the body tem- 

 perature falls, the pulse is reduced, 

 respiration is feeble, and other 

 functions are suspended entirely. 

 Frogs bury themselves in the mud 

 at the bottom of ponds ; toads, 

 newts, and snakes retire to holes 

 in the ground. 



Among insects hibernation is 

 almost general where the food is 

 vegetation, and it may be passed 

 in any stage of the life cycle- 

 either as egg, larva, pupa, or perfect 

 insect. Familiar butterflies like the 

 brimstone and the small tortoise- 

 shell frequently occasion news- 

 paper paragraphs by appearing on 

 the wing during some genial sunny 

 interval in midwinter, but these are 

 only hibernating females awakened 

 by ~a rise in temperature. 

 "Although the botanical text- 

 books are silent upon the subject of 

 hibernation, the phenomenon is 

 quite common among plants, many 

 of the bulbs and underground 

 rhizomes representing the hiber- 

 nating condition, while others 



illustrate the opposite condition 

 aestivation when the plant is 

 seeking to avoid the dangers of 

 drought. The behaviour of frog bit 

 (q,v. ) and other floating plants 

 which withdraw all their substance 

 into winter-buds and sink to the 

 bottom mud is distinctly a case of 

 hibernation. 



Hibernia OR IVERNIA. Name 

 given to Ireland by Latin writers. 

 Aristotle spoke of it as lerne, 

 and Latin authors evolved the 

 form Hibernia. See Ireland. 



Hibernians, ANCIENT ORDER OF. 

 Society composed of Catholic Irish- 

 men, and organized on nationalist 

 and benefit lines. It is said to have 

 been founded by Rory O'More in 

 the 17th century under the name 

 of the Defenders. After the Catho- 

 lic Emancipation Act became law 

 in 1829, the society was remodelled 

 and its operations were extended 

 to Great Britain, as well as to N. 

 America, where, particularly in the 

 U.S.A., the A.O.H. became a body 

 of political importance, Australia 

 and elsewhere. " Members must be 

 of Irish birth and profess the 

 Roman Catholic religion. The 

 Hibernians have given active 

 support to the Gaelic and other 

 nationalist movements in and on 

 behalf of Ireland. 



Hiccough. Convulsive act pro- 

 duced by spasmodic contraction 

 and descent of the diaphragm, the 

 large horizontal muscle which separ- 

 ates the cavity of the chest from 

 the abdomen. It is most frequently 

 due to over- distension of the 

 stomach with food or wind, and is 

 sometimes a symptom in more 

 serious diseases such as peritonitis, 

 cancer of the stomach, and typhoid 

 fever. Hiccough may generally be 

 stopped by holding the breath for 

 a minute. Properly the word 

 should be spelt, as it is always 

 pronounced, hiccup, the form 

 hiccough being due to a supposed 

 connexion with cough. 



Hi chens, ROBERT SMYTHE (b. 

 1864). British novelist. Born at 

 Speldhurst, Kent, Nov. 14, 1864, 

 and educated 

 at Clifton, he 

 first studied 

 music but 

 abandoned i t 

 for literature. 

 H i s satirical 

 story T he 

 Green Carna- 

 tion, 1894, 

 publi shed 

 an o n y - 

 mously, 

 piqued 



public 



curiosity. He developed this vein 

 of social satire with great success 

 in The Londoners, 1898, and The 



Prophet of Berkeley Square, 1901, 

 but the finest and most popular of 

 all his books is the eastern story, 

 The Garden of Allah, 1905, a subtly 

 presented study of the struggle 

 between religion and passion. 

 Other of his novels are Flames, 

 1897 ; The Call of the Blood, lour, : 

 Bella Donna, 1909 ; and The Way 

 of Ambition, 1913. His work for 

 the stage includes The Real Woman, 

 and plays based on his novels Bella 

 Donna and The Garden of Allah. 



Hickory (Carya). Genus of 

 trees of the natural order Juglan- 

 daceae, natives of N. America. 



Bussell 



Hickory. Leaves and nuts of the 

 North American tree 



The leaves are large, divided into 

 oblong leaflets arranged feather- 

 fashion, like those of the nearly 

 related walnut trees. The flowers, 

 which are without petals, are male 

 or female ; the males in hanging 

 catkins, the females in a short 

 spike at the end of the new shoots. 

 The husk of the large fruit splits 

 into four segments, revealing the 

 thin-shelled nut. The timber is 

 hard and tough. C. illinoensis is t he 

 pecan, whose delicious, olive- 

 shaped nuts are a favourite fruit. 

 C.ovata, the shell-bark or shag-bark, 

 produces the principal hickory-nut 

 of the markets. C. laciniosa is the 

 big shell-bark or king-nut ; C. alba 

 the mocker-nut ; C. aquatica the 

 bitter pecan, and C. glabra the 

 pignut or broom hickory. 



The shell- bark was introduced 

 into Great Britain in 1 629. Hickory 

 trees thrive best if grown as speci- 

 men trees in any ordinary soil on 

 lawns or the borders of woodlands, 

 and may be planted in either au- 

 tumn or spring. When pruning 

 takes place in Nov. the thinnings of 

 the hickory are particularly valu- 

 able, if preserved and dried, for use 

 as walking-sticks. The hickory is 

 propagated by means of nuts sown 

 in late autumn. 



Hicks, EDWARD SEYMOUR (b. 

 1871). British actor. Born at St. 

 Helier, Jersey, Jan. 30, 1871, and 

 originally intended for the army, 

 he first appeared on the stage at 

 the Grand Theatre, Islington. He 



