To Mountain Tarn 



able to look after itself. Nor does the blindness 

 of man render the adjustments of nature less 

 necessary, nor the turning of the gun against 

 the stoat less barbarous. 



The larger weasel alters his hue. That means 

 that he is a more northerly species, or as far as 

 our own country is concerned, that he dwells in 

 ruder places and a little further up the slope. A 

 white coat against the rain-darkened soil of an 

 open winter on the plain would be a danger to 

 the dwellers there, and an indictment against 

 Nature. Very rarely, from causes that are 

 obscure, the lesser weasel is found white. The 

 albino is known in many other species whose 

 habitual coat is of sober hue. It seems to point 

 to some common source, it may be a very distant 

 reversion. In the case of the weasel, it may 

 arise from a cross. These are exceptional. The 

 change that makes the summer stoat into the 

 winter ermine may have one of two meanings. 



The primal use is to make the wearer invisible, 

 or hard to detect on a sheet of snow. This 

 explains why the change occurs in winter, and 

 fixes the haunt where snow habitually lies. 

 Against so pure and uniform a background, a 

 differently toned object must be easily seen, and 

 would find no place of concealment. Much more 

 readily would it be seen than on the snowless 

 hillside, amid whose varied toning, hues might be 

 found in accord with its own. 



Q 225 



