310 POLAR SNOW AS A PROTECTIVE COVERING. 



the horse which perished was an animal which, 

 as its name implies, was possessed of curved teeth. 

 Was it to this circumstance that its extinction was 

 due ? We cannot positively say but it may well be 

 that an even smaller circumstance than this might 

 suffice to turn the balance, and decide the fate of a 

 race, under the imperious necessity of the great natural 

 law, first insisted on by Darwin, of " a perpetual struggle 

 for existence and the ultimate survival of the fittest." 



It is not however alone in the case of one or two 

 solitary instances of large animals, which contrive to 

 maintain existence throughout the long night of the 

 polar winter, that we encounter marvellous examples 

 of vitality under (apparent) adversity, in the Arctic 

 Zone. There are still the cases of the arctic hare, 

 and mouse, the lemming, the marten, and the ptarmigan 

 (besides others), upon each of which we propose to 

 say a few words. 



And here we would remark, that when we wonder 

 at the seeming difficulties under which these creatures 

 constantly live, it is yet probable that could we remove 

 them to some more hospitable shore, it would prove but a 

 cruel kindness, and that to them our officious meddling 

 would simply mean destruction. Man is but too apt 

 to judge of everything from his own standpoint of 

 view; and to argue that because to him the great 

 night of an arctic winter, and the drifting snow 

 which covers everything, would be but a cold comfort, 

 ergo, it must be so to everything else. Nothing, 

 however, as we know, can be further from the fact. 

 To these seemingly weak and delicate denizens of the 

 Polar Zone, the snow drift is a home which furnishes 

 them with both house and covering: beneath its 



