THE HARE KIND. 



357 



apprized by nature that during the winter 

 they shall not want any, so that they make 

 no preparations for food, though so diligent- 

 ly employed in fitting up their abode. As 

 soon as they perceive the first approaches of 

 the winter, during which their vital motions 

 are to continue in some measure suspended, 

 they labour very diligently to close up the 

 two entrances of their habitation, which they 

 effect with such solidity, that it is easier to 

 dig up the earth any where else than where 

 they have closed it. At that time they are 

 very fat, and some of them are found to weigh 

 above twenty pounds ; they continue so for 

 even three months more ; but by degrees 

 their flesh begins to waste, and they are usu- 

 ally very lean by the end of winter. When 

 their retreat is opened, the whole family is 

 then discovered, each rolled into a ball, and 

 covered up under the hay. In this state they 

 seem entirely lifeless; they may be taken 

 away, and even killed without their testifying 

 any great pain; and those who find them in 

 this manner, carry them home in order to 

 breed up the young and eat the old ones. 

 A gradual and gentle warmth revives them; 

 but they would die if too suddenly brought 

 near the fire, or if their juices were too quick- 

 ly liquefied. 



Strictly speaking, says Mr. Buffbn, these 

 animals cannot be said to sleep during the 

 winter; it may be called rather a torpor, a 

 stagnation of all the faculties." This torpor 

 is produced by the congelation of their blood, 

 which is naturally much colder than that of 

 all other quadrupeds. The usual heat of 

 man andotlaer animals is about thirty degrees 

 above congelation ; the heat of these is not 

 above ten degrees. Their internal heat is 

 seldom greater than that of the temperature 

 of the air. This has been often tried by plung- 

 ing the ball of the thermometer into the body 

 of a living dormouse, and it never rose beyond 

 its usual pitch in air, and sometimes it sunk 

 above a degree. It is not surprising, there- 

 fore, that these animals, whose blood is so 

 cold naturally, should become torpid, when 

 the external cold is too powerful for the small 

 quantity of heat in their bodies, yet remain- 

 ing ; and this always happens when the ther- 



Button, vol. xvi. Loirs. 



mometer is not more than ten degrees above 

 congelation. This coldness Mr. Buffbn has 

 experienced in the blood of the bat, the dor- 

 mouse, and the hedgehog, and with great 

 justice he extends the analogy to the marmout. 

 which, like the rest, is seen to sleep all the 

 winter. This torpid state continues as long 

 as the cause which produces it continues; 

 and it is very probable that it might be length- 

 ened out beyond its usual term, by artificially 

 prolonging the cold ; if, for instance, the ani- 

 mal were rolled up in wool, and placed in a 

 cold cellar, nearly approaching to, but not 

 quite so cold as an ice-house, for that would 

 kill them outright, it would remain perhaps 

 a whole year in its state of insensibility. 

 However this be, if the heat of the air be 

 above ten degrees, these animals are seen to 

 revive; and, if it be continued in that degree 

 of temperature, they do not become torpid, 

 but eat and sleep at proper intervals like all 

 other quadrupeds whatever. 



From the above account we may form some 

 conception of the state in which these animals 

 continue during the winter. As in some dis- 

 orders where the circulation is extremely lan- 

 guid, the appetite is diminished in proportion, 

 so in these the blood scarcely moving, or only 

 moving in the greater vessels, they want no 

 nourishment to repair what is worn away by 

 its motions. They are seen, indeed, by slow 

 degrees to become leaner in proportion to 

 the slow attrition of their fluids; but this is 

 not perceptible, except at the end of some 

 months. Man is often known to gather nou- 

 rishment from the ambient air; and these also 

 may in some measure be supplied in the same 

 manner; arid, having sufficient motion in their 

 fluids to keep them from putrefaction, and 

 just sufficient nourishment to supply the waste 

 of their languid circulation, they continue ra 

 ther feebly alive than sleeping. 



These animals produce but once a year, 

 and usually bring forth but three or four at 

 a time. They grow very fast, and the extent 

 of their lives is not above nine or ten years; 

 so that the species is neither numerous nor 

 very much diffused. They are chiefly found 

 in the Alps, where they seem to prefer the 

 brow of the highest mountains to the lowest 

 ranges, and the sunny side to that in the shade. 

 The inhabitants of the country where they 



