HYBERNATION. 119 



And teach their bands in fed'ral strength to form, 



Ere winter conies, a shelter from the storm. 



The solid structure fram'd with twisted reeds, 



I'lastcr'd with mud, and interlac'd with weeds 



Four cubits measures in its space around, 



Rais'd like a little turret from the ground. 



Within, thick buttress-steps around supply 



Strength to the walls, and keep the lodgings dry ; 



At top, a rounded cupola or dome, 



Twelve inches thick, roofs in this winter home. 



Here, with their young, whole families repose, 



Whilst gather'd o'er them rest the winter snows. 



Yet do they not, like marmots, board and .sleep, 



Bat wander still, and forage in the deep, — 



Like mining moles, through hollow pathways stray 



To spreading roots, or catch retiring prey ; 



And still beneath the fro/en stream they feed 



Upon the water-lily and the reed. 



And thus they live, excluded from the light, 



In total darkness— in perpetual night. 



At length, the sun resumes, as winter yields, 



A Strengthening empire o'er the witber'd fields; 



The ice dissolves, the snows all melt away, 



And leave expos'd the musk-rat's house of clay. 



Then comes the hunter, and his efforts tear 



The dome-roof off. Then pours the day's full glare 



Upon the darkness, and bewilders all, 



While in their house the easy victims fall. 



Tor e'en their gnomes the sudden burst of day 



Frights from their post, and drives confus'd away. 



But soon they rally, part their lives redeem, 



And through their galleries hurry to the stream. 



And these again are wanderers as before, 



Within the river, and along the shore." 



We are not aware that any writer has con- 

 sidered the winter retirement of animals for 

 protection against the cold, without entering 

 into a state of torpidity, (the beaver and the 

 musquash for example,) as coming within the 

 pale of hybernation. A little consideration, 

 however, will serve to place the matter in its 

 true light ; for, from continuous or perfect 

 hybernation, we are led through different 

 phases and degrees of interrupted or partial 

 hybernation, to sleepless hybernation. What 



