The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1895-11-09

stra nge still is the experience of Colonel
FieIden when Wintering with the Alert.
| When the temperature was at eighty
degrees below freezing point ttahren-
heit), the lemmjAgs We're seen peeLlng
! from their burrows in the snow, ana ne
! had ample proof that ANIMALS We're
moving all the time" in this Supplying
cold.
Man in this case was also able to
! withstand the extreme of low temper
| allure. drawing his food from artificial
| stores and clad in the skins OF the
| Arctic animals which have developed
| a special cOld-resisting covering. But
| how are they fed while the cold pre-
walls? The carniverous creatures live
on the weaker animals. But the rein
deers, musk-sheep and Jennings must
procure vegetable food even at such
| times The life of plants must be pre-
| served in spite of conditions which
seem to make it impossible. The eX-
| PLANTATION is that the absence OF the
| sunlight, which is absolutely necessary
| for the nutrition of plants elsewhere,
| does not prevent their growth in the
night of the Arctic winter. The lem
mings which were seen by Colonel
FieIden were found to have been feed
ms on a saXifrage common in the dls-
trict which, though exposed through
out the winter to a temperature of sew
GIJN degrees DPIOW ZcIO SilON ON' q A''iA'NiA
green bud at the extremity OF each
stalk, proving that it was growing IN
spite of darkness
The immunity from destruction pos
sessed by Arctic plants and animals eX-
rosed to such conditions is thus eStaD-
| lished. But the struggle Tor existence
| must. even so, be most severe ana eN-
hausting, so severe that the impulse to
migrate to a less rigorous climate seems
suggested by nature. Yet the mann
mails do not migrate, and the birds re-
turn faithfully every summer The
usual explanation of the former fact is
the assumption that they are the re-
mains of q previous migration north
ward. This is rejected by Mr.. Battye
/ as a movement from favorable to unfa-
vorable conditions, and so contrary to
probability and the facts of experience.
The objection is not conclusive. 1t is
certain that the creatures which in
habit the deep left light. warmth and
food, and invaded the realms of cold and
darkness, where their eyes lost the
| power of sight, while retaining the out
| ward form which they possessed for use
in the sunlight.
But for the theory of the northward
migration. Mr.. Battye suggests another
and more probable hypothesis He
considers that the Arctic plants and
animals are there because they were
born there; certain plants existed in
the northern regions before they de-
! sCended into temperate Europe; and
| that there is mo reason to suppose
! that contemporary animal life could not
have been there also, when we remember
| that these regions had then cooled down
| from temperature sufficiently tropical
| to have supported the corals Of the
! Siurian era which formed the reefs
now shown to have existed in these re-
gions-' Such q theory supplies a natural
explanation of the northern migration
of birds. They are returning to their
old home: and the musk-sheep, reindeer
and polar bear remain there and refuse
to leave for the same reason.-London
Spectator.