THE ORIGINAL PAPER-MAKERS 101 



The first cold weather, after the queens have entered their winter 

 quarters, produces an effect upon them similar to that which is pro- 

 duced upon the woodchuck and other animals subject to torpor. At 

 first a partial benumbment takes place, but the insect, if touched, is 

 still capable of moving its organs. As the cold increases, all the 

 animal functions cease. The insect breathes no longer and has no need 

 of a supply of air; its nutritive secretions cease, no more food is re- 

 quired, and it has all the external symptoms of death. 



Thus we will leave the few survivors of a once great insect empire, 

 perhaps huddled behind the picture moulding in our bed-room, in- 

 significant now to be sure, but planning perhaps in their insect heads, 

 every cell, every gallery, and every passage which is to be built when 

 the new colonies are founded in the first warm days of April. 



