The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-10-26
PROBLEM or ARCTIC LIFE.
How Plants and Animals Exist in
Tint Region.
From the London Spectator.

From the London Spectator.
The persistence of animal life in the
region of Arctic cold appears only less
unaccountable than its presence in the
ocean abyss. The existence OF deep-sea
creatures in perpetual darkness. and un-
der a weight OF waters four miles deep,
was incredible. because inconceivable The
existence of life in Actic darkness and
Arctic cold is unaccountable, because it
seems to be of necessity intolerable.
Granting that highly organized creatures
can exist there, it is passing strange that
they should consent TO do so. or make
a voluntary habitation in that hell Of
cold and darkness which Morse fancy i'm
agined as a place of torment more ap-
palling than the lake of liquid fire. one
would have thought Arctic life must cease,
because, even if possible, it was not worth
living; Inat there would be a voluntary
exodus of beasts, as of birds, before the
winter setting of the sun; and the slower
moving mammals would so, to return 10
more.
Yet in the deep seas the inconceivable
has been found to exist, highly organized
creatures live and are reproduced where
no light penetrates, where no plants grow,
in eternal cold, and in a pressure twenty
times greater than that which drives
railway train; and in the Arctic circle
mammalian animals, birds and plants en-
dure a five months night, and tenn
perature far lower than that of the deep
seas The lowest temperature of ;he
ocean abyss was found to be % degrees
Fahrenheit below freezing point. That OF
the polar night falls 20 degrees 20
80 degrees. The cold endured by the Arc
tic animals is almost as astonishing as
the pressure borne by the creatures OF
the deep sea; yet in neither IS there any
notable change in structure TO meet thcse
conditions. The Arctic mammals DO not
differ greatly from those Of kindred spe-
cies found elsewhere why, theh' 40 t ney
continue to endure the plague Oh dark
ness and the desperate cold! -. -.
The problem IS explained in part by
Mr.. A. Trevor-Battye, IN a suggestiSe
and well written paper, read before the
Conditions in Arctic Lands. a,,, -,
portance to the benehcient enect on me
OF the nightly Arctic summer. Al hol-
guey, which lies at mo, no great e 1ls'9 Saiis
equally into six months OF perpetual
sunlight and six OF unbroken night Inc
never-setting sun of the first forces me
beating strongly under the perpetual
sunlight; life, and the propagation OF
life by birds as DANGEROUSLY, by mowers
as brightly as in the lands of the
SOUTH" OF the flowers, buttercupS,
dandelions forget-me-nOt, haWkWeed,
cuckoofiower, sedum and saXlIrage ne
found in blossom, and no English meadow
can outVie these Arctic pastures IN mas
SEES of purple and blue ana gold. SUI
these are halcyon days OF the polar re-
zion When the winter ana darkness
Settle down on the land, the blrqs, uucks
geese knots sanderlings ana ploVeIs ny
SOUTH except the raven, the ptarnisan
and two species of gull. But with these
remain ali the mammals, not only the
whales and seals, but the lahu erea-
lures all of whom might II they chose,
Observation-Disclosures, musk sheep, polar
hears blue foxes and jennings, prefer
to stay and abide for six months IN TINS
circumpolar ''city of dreadful night.
The nature of this polar night, OF the
cold il brings and its effect upon animals,
may be gathered from Col. tlelden
notes made during the winter passed by
n Nj s. Alert on Grinnen Land IN 1910
rs at a point nearer the actual pole man
has been reached before or since Inc
near tin March Pa night of only TWEEN
~ DAYS less than its ealculated uisaP
pearance at the actual pore Icy LIS y
never dark in the sense that II IS oarK
inside the galleries OF a coalplt. me arc
tic animals, unlike the oeep,5b1d orslsns
~ SiInminate their path, though they i've
onlv in darkness visible
ION November 80 wires ses fro from i . ais,
+ance of half a mile in southerly di-
rection the ship was visible from II a.
m to p m AT noon Jus, IoppiL psa , riS
1900 slxv through which stars of the
FIRST magnitude had diihculiy IN shlh-
ing on January q the twlllshC az ~ Noon on
10 isting1lishta comrade at distance OF
iS0 wards BY the beginning of February,
a month before the reappearaInlce o. me
sun We were able to take walks OF con-
Siderable extent, and by the middle of
that month We were carrying our guns
in the pursuit of game. IN ,andii nitlon
and enabled them to cross the country al
most throughout the winter
This account someWhatg ulspels tne
thickness of that Zimmerman darkness IN
which tradition wraps the polar night.
RtIt. at best. 1t is bad enough. Men,
even Arctic voyaSers reel lts GLOOM GLOOM iiitol-
strange to say, the animals do not, so
far as we can tell. Their eyes are not
modified by the prevailing darkness elth-
ar in the direction of greater power or by
degeneration through which the shall
low water forms which have invaded the
deem sea have become blind. AT me same
time Mr. Battye has noted, and satisfied
himself by repeated experiments, that the
faculty of sight is inferior IN the Arctic
fox and Attic hare TO that OF the com
mon fox and common mare OF Brltain
THE NERVOUS depression with which
darkness affects men is quite absent in
the case of animals in the Arctlc nights.
Their vital activity is unaffected by the
absence of sunlight, which, though pro-
tracted for so great a time, seems no
more irkSOme than II does 10 those an
inals which by choice have become noe
turnal in their habits III temperate lands.
Their Indifference to cold is still more
Astonishing. The Arctic animals do not
even hibernate. The polar bear does not
initiate the sleep of the black and brown
hears but is a rover through the winter,
and is hunted and killed by moonlight;
and Mr. Battye fund on Kolguey the
traps and half-frozen bats of seal fat
which had been set for blue foxes the
previous winter. The Samoyeds also urg-
ed him to stay through the winter, say
ing their would be plenty of hunting.
More strange stin is the experience of
Col Fielden when wintering with the
Alert When the temperature was at 80
degrees below the freezing point (Faren-
heiD the Jennings were seen pearing
from their burrows in the snow and he
had "ample proof that animals were
moving all the time in this Supplying
cold.
Man in this case was also able to
withstand the extreme of low tempera-
ture 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 prevails2 The carniv-
orous creatures live on the weaker ami
mails But the reindeers, musk-sheep and
Jennings must procure vegetable food
even at such times. The life of plants