The Life of the Caterpillar 



sure enough, the meteorological record of the 

 Temps gives me the following information: 

 a minimum of 29.2 in., coming from the Bay 

 of Biscay on the 22nd, reaches Algeria on 

 the 23rd and spreads over the Provence 

 coast on the 24th. There is a heavy snow- 

 fall at Marseilles on the 25th. 



"The ships," I read in my paper, "present 

 a curious spectacle, with their yards and rig- 

 ging white. That is how the people of Mar- 

 seilles, little used to such sights, picture Spitz- 

 bergen and the North Pole." 



Here certainly is the gale which my cater- 

 pillars foresaw when they refused to go out 

 last night and the night before; here is the 

 centre of disturbance which revealed itself at 

 Serignan by a violent and icy north wind on 

 the 25th and the following days. Again I 

 perceive that the greenhouse caterpillars are 

 alarmed only at the approach of the wave 

 of atmospheric disturbance. Once the first 

 uneasiness caused by the depression had 

 abated, they came out again, on the 25th and 

 the following days, in the midst of the gale 

 as though nothing extraordinary were hap- 

 pening. 



106 



