142 THE WONDER OF LIFE 



striking way in the sequence of animal and plant life in a 

 ' hay infusion ' one form after another rising into domin- 

 ance and then disappearing. In this connexion Professor 

 L. L. Woodruff of Yale has shown that the slipper-animal- 

 cule (Paramoecium), excretes substances which are poisonous 

 to itself when they accumulate in a limited environment. 

 Thus when Paramcecium reaches its maximum, the be- 

 ginning of the end is not far off. 



DIFFICULT CONDITIONS 



Who has not been impressed by the way in which living 

 creatures triumph over the most unpromising circum- 

 stances ? We went up the other day to a well-known minor 

 pass in the Alps where we were getting near the lasting 

 snows and the bare inhospitable rocks. It seemed ill-suited 

 to be a home, but what impressed us most, after the view of 

 the mountains, was the abundant insurgent life ; we felt 

 what Bergson calls the elan, the spring, the impetus that is 

 characteristic of life. Not only were there many beautiful 

 flowers coming up even at the thinned edges of the snow 

 mantle, but there was quite a rich insect life. Conspicuous, 

 too, were the large, white-bellied Alpine swifts, perhaps the 

 most rapid of birds, continually swirling about, all in silence, 

 in the cold air : emblems of insurgent life. Shy marmots 

 whistled from among the rocks. Flocks of white moths 

 floated up in the mist, rising like the souls of animals that 

 had died far below. We felt the insurgent indomitable 

 quality of life. 



Antarctic Shores. On Sir Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic 

 Expedition several collections were made at Cape Royds 

 (77 32' S.), at first sight a most unpromising locality. 

 On the shore there was no vestige of life ; nothing but 



