cling toit. It is on record that sixty 
bats have been found in one cluster, the 
entire weight of the lot being sustained 
by the one bat clinging with its hooks 
to whatever it had fastened them to at 
the start—a weight of at least ten 
pounds. The position of the central 
bat in sucha cluster would be like that 
of a man hanging by his thumb-nails 
and supporting the weight of fifty-nine 
other men. So completely is anima- 
tion suspended in the bat during the 
cold months that no test yet applied 
has induced it to show the least sign of 
life. Torpid bats have been inclosed 
by the hour in air-tight glass jars and 
not a particle of oxygen in the jars 
has been exhausted when they were 
taken out, showing that the bats had 
not breathed. 
As cold drives certain animals, in- 
sects, and reptiles to a state of torpid- 
ity, so heat and lack of water bring 
about the same condition in others. 
The animal or reptile that hibernates, 
or goes to sleep in cold weather, ar- 
ranges its body so that it will conduce 
to the greatest warmth, while those 
that estivate, or become torpid in warm 
weather, place themselves in positions 
that show that they want all the cool- 
ness the climate will permit. The ten- 
ric, a tropical animal, carnivorous and 
insectivorous, becomes torpid during 
the greatest heat, and lies on its back 
with its body drawn to its greatest 
length, and its limbs spread wide apart. 
Snakes estivate in the South, all kinds 
together, just as snakes hibernate in 
the North, but instead of rolling them- 
selves in great balls, as the northern 
snakes do, they lie singly, and stretched 
to their full length. 
Want of water will cause the com- 
mon garden snail to go into a state of 
the most complete and curious lethargy. 
This is the snail of the genus Limax, 
not the larger one of the genus Helix. 
In the latter the phenomenon of hiber- 
nation is especially remarkable. In 
November the snail forms just a soft, 
silky membrane across the external 
opening of its shell. On the inner sur- 
face of that it deposits a coating of 
carbonate of lime, which immediately 
hardens the gypsum. This partition is 
again lined with a silky membrane. 
The «snail then retires a little further 
into the shell and forms asecond mem- 
branous partition, retiring again and 
again until there are six of these parti- 
tions between the snail and the lime- 
coated door at the entrance of the 
shell. In the recess behind all these 
partitions the snail lies torpid until May. 
All this time it lives without motion, 
without heat, without food, without air, 
without circulation or the exercise of 
any of its functions. If this snail is 
prevented from hibernating for several 
seasons by keeping it in a warm room, 
it will gradually waste away and die. 
A case is known where several snails 
of this genus were shut in a perforated 
box without food or water. They re- 
tired into their shells and closed them 
with athin membrane. They remained 
so for three years, but revived when 
put into torpid water. They had been 
driven into torpidity by drought. The 
blood of this animal is white. j 
It may be of interest to state in con- 
nection with these animals who pass 
half the year, or less, in sleep, that 
there are several species of fish, reptiles, 
and insects which never sleep during 
their stay in this world. Among fish 
it is now positively known that pike, 
salmon, and gold-fish never sleep at 
all. Also that there are several others 
of the fish family that never sleep more 
than a few minutes during a month. 
There are dozens of species of flies 
which never indulge in slumber, and 
from three to five species of serpents 
which the naturalists have never been 
able to catch napping. 
Apollo has peeped through the shutter, 
And awakened the witty and fair; 
The boarding-school belle’s in a flutter, 
The two-penny post’s in despair. 
The breath of the morning is flinging 
A magic on blossom and spray, 
And cockneys and sparrows are singing 
In chorus on Valentine’s day. 
—Praed. 
