104 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [10:3— Mar., 1914 



summer laying up food near his underground nest. But Wood- 

 chuck simply digged him a hole, a grave, then ate until no particle 

 more of fat could be got into his baggy hide, and then crawled 

 into his tomb, gave up the ghost and waited the resurrection of the 

 spring." 



Dallas Lore Sharp 



This quotation, read to classes of varying age, has been most 

 enchanting, and it has inspired search a little farther into the 

 phenomenon of hibernation among plants and animals. 



There is no need to attemp the elaborate classification of sciences 

 often given in reference books when we say, "The study of nature 

 is two-fold, the study of the universe without the individual and 

 an examination of the universe of reaction within." The first 

 great interest awakens during the early years of infancy and con- 

 tinues throughout life. It often satisfies itself with just a speaking 

 acquaintance with many things; indeed, it tends toward super- 

 ficiality. The second interest entails the solution of profound 

 problems, a delving into depths. Too often we find its students 

 unable to appreciate the beauties of nature in the mass ; a gorgeous 

 sunset straightway becomes a large problem in the physics of 

 light-rays, wave length, velocity, and refraction. 



When one attempts to combine the two phases of nature- 

 study, he awakens to a realization that he lives in a vast sea of 

 external force whose waves come beating in upon him like those 

 which run up on the shore, at times only ripples, at times a great 

 surf. And so the life one lives is a resultant of the external forces 

 of factors and the internal responses and reactions. 



The special and general senses of animals produce more or less 

 immediate reactions. To many men these are the only things 

 worth living for; the pleasures of taste, of sound, of sight, these 

 and others of the flesh measure the short and shallow span of 

 life. But there are other and more powerful influences working 

 upon us. Those great forces which we strive to control or counteract 

 called heredity; those of atmospheric pressure, of humidity, of 

 seasonal temperature, of ultra-violet light, all these and more 

 which science is just coming to know produce internal responses 

 and determine what we are. It is the purpose of this brief sketch 

 to call attention to only the responses of animals and plants to 

 cold. 



