A FROZEN WORLD 



213 



vital part of the plant at 

 a rule, the top or growing 



smeared. The really 



each moment is, as 



shoot. Now, if the curled pond-weed were to let 



itself get overtaken bodily by winter, and its top 



branches or vigorous shoots frozen in the crust of 



ice which must soon coat the pond, it would be all 



NO. 2. THE GREAT POND-SNAIL IN WINTER. 



up with it. To guard against this calamity, there- 

 fore, the plant has hit upon a dodge as clever in 

 its way as that of our old friend the soldanella, 

 which laid by fuel to melt the glacier ice in the 

 Alpine springtide. Prevention, says the curled 

 pond-weed, is better than cure. So, in No. 3, you 

 catch it in the very act of getting ready certain 



