Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1861-04-10
WAKING UP FROM WINTER SLEEP.

dyoernatlon. or winter sleep, is a condition
beautifully devised by the Creator to idemn
t fy certain animals for the loss of their neces
sary food during the winter time Nutrition
being arrested, all the other vital functions
are either suspended, or are carried on at low
steam pressure, to speak. This is the case
with respiration and the accompanying evolu-
tion of animal heat Animals may be likened
to furnaces in more than figurative sense.
Food furnishes fuel, and the breath supplies
oxygen for the support of combustion. Du-
ring ordinary sleep, the combustivc function is
notably lowered. The human system is so
delicately organized, that it cannot sink into
the deep torpor of cold, and be afterwards re-
| vived; but the long winter sleep of some anil
mails is no more extraordinary to them than
the few hours nightly rest to each of US.
Let us take some examples. The bat lives
upon insects and nothing else. Where were
the insects in winter! Either dead or torpid
! -hy ybernating too hidden away in minute
| holes and corners, whittier the bat could not
| follow them even if he were about and stirring /;
| SO what more sensible thing could the bat do
than go to sleep also, and remain sleeping un-
| til spring time comes again. The frog is an
| insect-feeder too, which he, no more than the
bat can obtain in winter; so the frog goes to
| sleep. In the north of France and Germany,
/ there are pretty little frogs of green color,
and which live on trees. Many attempts have
| been made to naturaiZe these pretty things in
| England, but without much success. The
very midness of insular winter kills them.
| The degrees of cold we experience is usually
| not enough to send them into deep winter
| sleep. The economy of their furnace combus-
! tion is not brought down sufficiently low to do
without food entirely; and, on the other hand,
| food they cannot obtain. So the result is that
the pretty tree-frogs die. AS frogs cat in
sects, SO in their turn do snakes eat frogs;
and the latter not being complaisant enough
to hop about in winter-trme, what more Sensi-
bic thing could snake do than 60 to sleep
too (! For similar reason the spiny hedge
hog sleeps soundly too; as people who have
found him in his winter-quarters can testify.
One of the most curious of foreign hyberna-
tors is the little North American animal call
ed the ssprairie dog" Prairie dogs congegate
in immense heards; and whilst summertime
lasts, they are active enough AS winter ap-
proaches, however, and before cold weather
actually sets in, the prairie dogs build them
selves houses, and getting under shelter of
the same. fasten up the doors securely, and
take their long winter-nap. In late winter, or
very early spring, whilst snow is yet on the
ground, and the prairie land is tormented by
ICY, bowling winds, the prairie-dogs may be
noticed, in the morning of some bitter cold
day, opening their doors, poking out their
noses, and not apparently finding things as
pleasant as they might have wished, retiring
once more. Again they close their mansion
door, and go TO sleep. The time had not ar
rived for comming out, indeed, but the little
prairie dogs will not be deceived. Some in
dication of good time coming they preceived.
Their instinct led them not aStray. The Indi-
an and the backwoodsman, noticing the sign
able to predict that fair weather is near at
hand, having trusted to the sure instinct of
the prairie dogs.
Hybernation must only be accepted as a
relative term. Whilst some animals admit of
being frozen outright, and thawed again with
Il 10 thAIrn ift,tsa
by no means so tolerant of lowered tempera-
ture. human individual, having sunk into
the sleep of cold, is generally frost bitten at
once, in some prominent and exposed part.
The rose is the most likely organ to suffer
after which come the fingers and the toes.
If the sleeper be aroused at once, incipient
frost bites may frequently be cured by Judi
cius friction, with ice or snow at first the OBJ
ject being to supply warmth by degrees. But
If the first frost-bite touch any internal organ
the seal of death is impressed Instances
have been known of the ccngelation of fish
bodily, in the ice of pond, the creatures
having been restored to motion, withou. dam
age, by judicious thawing. Stranger, still
examples record of the freezing of in
sects into block OF ice, which latter being
laid before fire and thaWed, the insects
buZzed away. Between these extreme cases,
and intolerance of cold experienced by hu-
man beings, comes hybernation, properly so
called.
Even amongst hybernators, there is a great
difference. Our pretty little friend, the squir- |
rel, furnishes us with an example of what may |
be termed modified hybernation. The squir- |
rel is a good economist, as is well known. |
He keeps bright lookout at the comm Sa- |
fiat stores. In autumn, when the hazel nuts |
have ripened, the little fellow may be seen |
busiy carrying the tawny treasures, one by |
one, IN his mouth, and depositing them in |
some mysterious hole. In that hole is COM |
Portable nest furnished with great care, and u /
capaciouS larder besides it. In this larder he /
hides the nuts, to be nipped at frugaly in |
winter-tme, when the sun shines more bright |
ly than usual, and he rouses to see what is |
doing in the world. A tame Squirrel, living
in warm room, hybernates slightly or not /
at all A sleepy fellow he will perhaps seem,
not quite so lively as in the summer, but that
is all.
To rouse a hybernating animal from its
winter sleep is very dangerous operation.
are particularly intoerant OF this
treatment; in fact, the rough looking hedge
hog is a very delicate fellow. Thus dealt
with, the animal generally dies, furnishing one
of the many examples of the beautifully poised
relations of vitality to external circumstances,
as determined, for beneficent purposes, by AL
mighty will.
A man who had won a fat turkey at rattle,
and whose pious wife was very inquistive a.
bout his method of obtaining the poultry, sat
isfed her scruples at last, by way of the witty
remark that ssthe shakers gave it to him."
An English lady of rank Recently tied her |