CARIACUS VIRGINIANUS. 
trees are usually alive and green, which could hardly be the case 
were the drift theory true; 2d, the line is often most strongly marked 
on the shores of ponds that are too small, and too closely hemmed 
in by hills, to afford the wind a chance to drift the snow about their 
borders; and 3d, the foliage line is, in all instances where I have 
observed it, perfectly straight, and exactly parallel to the surface of 
the water, which could not possibly be the case were it caused by 
irregularly drifted snow. 
Moreover, it is now an ascertained fact that the green line is a 
result of the wintering of Deer along the shores where it exists, 
and the evidence on this head may be summed up as follows : 
In the first place, it is absent from at least half of the cedar bordered 
lakes, and is only found, of recent origin, in localities where Deer are 
known to winter. On some of the larger lakes it is confined to one 
shore and sometimes to a single deep bay, while the cedars about 
the rest of the lake remain unmarrecl. Furthermore, it is a fact, which 
can be verified by any one willing to take the trouble, that where the 
Deer still winter in these places the snow which covers the ice is 
literally trodden down by them, a well beaten path follows closely 
the outline of the shore, and the stumps of newly broken branches 
may here and there be found. The height of the line shows the dis- 
tance that a full grown Deer can reach when standing on the snow 
and ice. And finally, trustworthy witnesses affirm that they have 
observed the Deer standing on the ice in the act of browsing upon 
the low branches of cedars overhanging the lake. I regard all this 
evidence as conclusive. 
Though Deer are generally spoken of as nocturnal, they are by no 
means strictly so, their habits, in this particular, being modified by 
the environment. In localities that are much frequented by man 
they keep their beds during the greater part of the day, and feed 
mostly by night; while in the remoter sections the reverse seems to 
be true. 
The spot on which one lies to rest is called its bed. It is gener- 
