THE ARCTIC VOLE. 



49 



zone of eternal snows was not inhabited by any living being. 

 Even men of science admitted, as an article of faith, that 

 where man could not fix his residence no animal could live. 

 They made, however, a concession with respect to vegetables, 

 and particularly as regarded the lichens and the mosses. 



Well, observation and research conjointly, have erased this 

 article of faith from the scientific code. It has been demon- 

 strated that the icy regions, which man visits only at rare 

 intervals, and where he sojourns but for a time, are the home 

 of a certain number of animal species, more or less allied to 

 the human species. The scientific exploration of these re- 

 gions dates only from our own time. Spitzbergen, and the 

 summit of the Alps, such are our points of comparison. 



It is difficult to conceive of anything more interesting than 

 the historical exposition of the limited Fauna gladalis. First, 

 let us take the discovery, comparatively recent, of a small 

 rodent of the mouse order. 



THE ARVICOLA LEUCURUS, OR ARCTIC VOLE. 

 On the 8th of January 1832, a Swiss naturalist, M. Hugi, 

 started from Soleure to study the winter condition of the 

 classic glacier of Grindelwald. The undertaking was in many 

 respects a difficult one ; the sides of the Mettenberg, border- 

 ing on this glacier, were covered with an uniform stratum of 

 hardened snow ; a pathway had to be cut out with the pick- 

 axe. M. Hugi and his companions did not arrive at the 

 Slierreg until towards evening. 



A goatherd lives there during the summer. They sought 



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