316 ANIMAL LIFE BENEATH THE ARCTIC SNOWS. 



variety of causes decaying faster than others: in 

 this way it is evident that considerable cavities must 

 exist underneath, in which there can be no doubt, 

 small animals can pass and repass without difficulty, 

 and so are enabled to feed upon the plants which 

 grow there as if under the roof of a house and 

 like rats and other subterranean living animals in 

 our own country, these creatures thus exist in security, 

 doubtless collecting nests of grass in crevices of 

 rocks, and beneath the shelter of stones, etc., where 

 they can rear their young, in what to them is a 

 warm and comfortable abode, considerably warmer in 

 fact, at all times, than the exterior atmosphere. 



It is nevertheless a wonderful fact, when we come 

 to think of it and one worthy of all men's attention, 

 as a striking example of the boundless resource and 

 adaptive power of Nature to find that, in these vast 

 snow fields, where all appears to be a howling wil- 

 derness, destitute of any form of life, continually swept 

 by the fury of icy gales and swirling clouds of driv- 

 ing snow, there should still be small and delicate 

 animals, passing their lives in peaceful security be- 

 neath, unaffected by the greatest rigours of the tempest 

 or the frost, ready when the long night of winter is 

 over, and the summer returns, to issue once more 

 rejoicing from their holes, to bask in the blessed 

 sunshine, and people the country with myriads of. 

 harmless and beautiful living creatures. That they do 

 reside in these regions throughout the winter, is 

 proved beyond a doubt by their occasional appearance 

 upon the surface on fine days, when their tracks are 

 often clearly visible to arctic explorers; the animals 

 themselves being also sometimes seen and shot. 



