In the Face of the Cold 



IN THE FACE OF THE COLD 



When the full moon hangs high overhead, the snow creaks 

 underfoot, the north wind roars with furious blast, and the 

 trees of the forests crack in the frost with a report like that of 

 cannon, then, hanging in its little nest on the bare branches of 

 the wind-tossed trees, the tiny caterpillar of the Viceroy keeps 

 the spark of life where men freeze and die. Nothing in the 

 realm of nature is more wonderful than the manner in which 

 some of the most minute animal forms resist cold. The genera 

 Erebia and CEneis, and many species of the genus Brenthis, are, 

 as we have already learned, inhabitants of the arctic regions or 

 of lofty Alpine summits, the climate of which is arctic. Their 

 caterpillars often hibernate in a temperature of from forty to 

 fifty, and even seventy, degrees below zero, Fahrenheit. 



It has been alleged that caterpillars freeze in the winter and 

 thaw out in the spring, at that time regaining their vitality. 

 Thus far the writer is unable to ascertain that any experiments 

 or observations have positively decided for or against this view. 

 A number of recorded cases in which caterpillars are positively 

 stated to have been frozen and to have afterward been found to 

 be full of vitality when thawed are open to question. 



The most circumstantial account is that by Commander 

 James Ross, R. N., F. R. S., quoted by Curtis in the Entomo- 

 logical Appendix to the " Narrative" of Sir John Ross's second 

 voyage to the arctic regions. The specimens upon which the 

 observations were made were the caterpillars of Laria rossi, a 

 moth which is found abundantly in the arctic regions of North 

 America. I quote from the account: "About thirty of the 

 caterpillars were put into a box in the middle of September, and 

 after being exposed to the severe winter temperature of the next 

 three months, they were brought into a warm cabin, where, in 

 less than two hours, every one of them returned to life, and 

 continued for a whole day walking about; they were again ex- 

 posed to the air at a temperature of about forty degrees below 

 zero, and became immediately hard-frozen; in this state they 

 remained a week, and on being brought again into the cabin, 

 only twenty-three came to life; these were, at the end of four 

 hours, put out once more into the air and again hard-frozen; 



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