320 THE BIOLOGY OF THE SEASONS 



cannot be said in any off-hand way that the rate of mortality 

 from every form of death is greatest in Winter. Thus there 

 is an interesting seasonal distribution of disease, of suicide, 

 and even of accidents. Yet the general induction appears 

 safe enough that in northern lands Winter is the time of 

 severest elimination. Thus the season which is apt to seem 

 dull to the field-naturalist is full of interest to the evolu- 

 tionist. The hedgerows are bare and the woods silent, 

 the pools are clear and apparently devoid of life, the shore is 

 comparatively barren, even the sea has lost certain elements 

 of its wonted abundance. And, though much of this 

 scarcity is only apparent life lying low, or asleep, or on a 

 journey we must allow that in many cases life is altogether 

 sped. Proserpina has gone down to Hades. Balder the 

 Beautiful is dead. We have, in short, to recognise the 

 inexorable process of Natural Selection, whereby the 

 relatively less fit to the conditions of their life tend to be 

 eliminated, i.e. tend to die before the normal time, and to 

 leave behind them less than the normal number of offspring. 

 Winter is the time when the tree of Life is most rigorously 

 pruned. And this is in many cases well ; for, hard as the 

 saying is, the elimination of individuals is one of the con- 

 ditions in the persistence of a strong race. 



In our study of the decadence of Autumn, we spoke of 

 the death of individuals, and of the consolation which is 

 offered in the persistence of the race, but we cannot think 

 long over such matters without recognising that the race 

 itself may perish. We need only reverse the hands of the 

 geological clock a few minutes, as it were, to be convinced 

 of this. We need only go back to the more recent Ice Ages 

 the ages of Winter's tyranny which are not long past, as 

 time goes. Indeed, we need not leave human or even 

 modern history at all to find sadly abundant illustrations 

 of lost races. 



