248 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



dies of starvation. Even the old horses suffer from the poverty and 

 treachery of the winter. Snow-storms blowing over their feeding- 

 ground for days at a time depress their usually cheerful courage, 

 and increase the boldness of the wolves, which, even if they do not 

 fall upon the already exhausted horses, persecute and annoy to the 

 utmost those who are not yet worn out. But as soon as circum- 

 stances begin to improve, the wiry, weather- hardened, enduring 

 creatures recover their high spirits, and, when the snow begins to 

 melt, they set out on the return journey, reaching their summer 

 home in about a month's time. There they break up into single 

 herds, recuperate among the luxuriantly sprouting, fragrant pasture, 

 and, in a surprisingly short time, become fat and plump again. Soon 

 the want and misery of the winter are forgotten. 



Great as are the distances often traversed by all the mammals 

 already mentioned, they can scarcely be compared with those 

 covered by seals and whales. The water favours all the movements 

 of animals adapted to aquatic life, and offers everywhere the same 

 general conditions of life and the same amenities. Thus it renders 

 the migrations of its inhabitants easier, less toilsome and hazardous 

 than those of any other wanderers. Nevertheless it is somewhat 

 surprising to learn that many sea-mammals, and particularly the 

 whales, are among the most nomadic of all creatures; in fact that 

 many, if not most of them, pass their whole life in travelling. 

 Strictly speaking, no whale has a permanent place of sojourn for 

 the whole year, but passes singly, in pairs, with its young, or in 

 more or less numerous companies — the so-called schools — from one 

 part of the ocean to another, visiting certain favourite haunts in 

 regular order, and choosing different haunts in summer and in 

 winter. The seas inhabited by the same species of whale in winter 

 and in summer often lie farther apart than people seem to suppose, 

 for some whales travel, twice a year, more than a quarter of the 

 earth's circumference; they are to be found in summer among the 

 iee-iioes of the Arctic Ocean, and in winter on the other side of 

 the Equator. The female whales, who are in the highest degree 

 sociable, and attached to their young with the tenderest, most de- 

 voted love, assemble together in surprising numbers, and under the 



