220 ANIMALS AT WORK AND PLA Y 



Their indifference to cold is still more astonishing. 

 The Arctic animals do not even hibernate. The polar- 

 bear does not imitate the winter sleep of the black 

 and brown bears, but is a rover through the winter, 

 and is hunted and killed by moonlight ; * and Mr 

 Battye found on Kolguev the traps and half-frozen 

 baits of seal fat which had been set for blue-foxes 

 in the previous winter. The Samoyeds also urged 

 him to stay through the winter, saying that there 

 would be plenty of hunting. More strange still is 

 the experience of Colonel Feilden when wintering with 

 the ' Alert/ When the temperature was at 80 below 

 freezing point (Fahrenheit), the lemmings were seen 

 peering from their burrows in the snow, and he had 

 ' ample proof that animals were moving all the time ' 

 in this stupefying cold. 



Man in this case was also able to withstand the 

 extreme of low temperature, drawing his food from 

 artificial stores, and clad in the skins of the Arctic 

 animals which have developed a special cold-resisting 

 covering. But how are the Arctic animals fed while 

 the cold prevails? The carnivorous creatures live on 

 the weaker animals. But the reindeer, musk-sheep and 

 lemmings must procure vegetable food even at such 

 times. The life of plants must be preserved, in 



* The female bears, when pregnant, do hibernate, and produce their young 

 beneath their snow burrows. 



