18 A SHARP LOOKOUT. 



the ground to pass the winter as has been supposed. 

 I used to think the muskrats could foretell an early 

 and a severe winter, and have so written. But I am 

 now convinced they cannot ; they know as little about 

 it as I do. Sometimes on an early and severe frost 

 they seem to get alarmed and go to building their 

 houses, but usually they seem to build early or late, 

 high or low, just as the whim takes them. 



In most of the operations of Nature there is one or 

 more unknown quantity ; to find the exact value of 

 this unknown factor is not so easy. The wool of the 

 sheep, the fur of the animals, the feathers of the 

 fowls, the husks of the maize, why are they thicker 

 some seasons than others ; what is the value of the 

 unknown quantity here? Does it indicate a severe 

 winter approaching? Only observations extending 

 over a series of years could determine the point. 

 How much patient observation it takes to settle many 

 of the facts in the lives of the birds, animals, and 

 insects. Gilbert White was all his life trying to de- 

 termine whether or not swallows passed the winter in 

 a torpid state in the mud at the bottom of ponds and 

 marshes, and he died ignorant of the truth that they 

 do not. Do honey-bees injure the grape and other 

 fruits by puncturing the skin for the juice ? The 

 most patient watching by many skilled eyes all over 

 the country has not yet settled the point. For my 

 own part, I am convinced that they do not. The 

 honey-bee is not the rough-and-ready freebooter that 

 the wasp and bumble-bee are ; she has somewhat, of 



