A FROZEN WORLD 209 



impossible situations. All we are really entitled to 

 say is this that the conditions for life do occur in 

 ponds, owing to this habit of water, and that there- 

 fore special plants and animals have been adapted 

 by nature to fulfil them. 



The devices by which such plants and animals 

 get over the difficulties of the situation, however, 

 are sufficiently remarkable to satisfy the most ex- 

 acting. Recollect that for some weeks together 

 the entire pond may be frozen over, and that 

 during that dreary time all animal or vegetable 

 life at its surface must be inevitably destroyed. 

 For hardly a plant or an animal can survive the 

 actual freezing of its tissues. Nevertheless, as soon 

 as winter sets in, the creatures which inhabit the 

 pond feel the cold coming, and begin to govern 

 themselves accordingly. A few, which are amphi- 

 bious, migrate, it is true, to more comfortable 

 quarters. Among these are the smaller newts or 

 efts, which crawl ashore, and take refuge from the 

 frost in crannies of rocks or walls, or in cool damp 

 cellars. Most of the inhabitants of the pool, how- 

 ever, remain, and retire for warmth and safety to 

 the depths. Even the amphibious frogs themselves, 

 which have hopped ashore on their stout legs in 

 spring, when they first emerged from their tadpole 

 condition, now return for security to their native 

 pond, bury themselves comfortably in the mud in 

 the depths, and sleep in social clusters through the 

 frozen season. They are not long enough and 

 lithe enough to creep into crannies above ground 

 like the newts ; and with their soft smooth skins 



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