Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1903-03-12

Jul MI lHelA ldClluuS pTeSluSS over d
vast dormitory. Many of her children
are tucked away for a three-months'
unbroken, sleep; others lie mapping
until hunger forces them to visit
their nearby storehouses for food;
and the rest stir abroad only as neces-
sity compels. The outdoor world is
wrapped in one vast white blanke,
and nature goes about softly, like a
careful mother, with shaded lamp of
sun or moon, to see that all of her
little sleepers are tucked up to their
chins and protected as well as may
be from the fierce thrusts and pinches
of Jack Frost.
When one ventures into the silent
woods at this season of the year it is
impossible to resist the impression of
being in some immense, palatial,
marble-walled, marble-foored and
spotlessly clean bedroom. The still
ness that reigns is that of profound
sleep and not of death 1t is a beauti-
full and peaceful room, ceiled with
dark green, or gray or blue or sky
frescoed with tracery of bare boughs;
the windows are open to sun and
breeze; all the furnishings and al
rangements are most cheerful, con-
venient and sanitary. Pure running
water is always at hand, in pipes of
crystal wrapped about with wool.
There is a mild, wholesome warmth
from the sun by day, and from the
Of hn II -HtD
by night. In the earth. in the trees
and logs, in the crevices of the rocks,
in the ice-sealed streams, scores and
hundreds of natures children lie
sleeping, watched over and guarded
by her with tenderest care and solicit
tude.
Many of these little sleepers have
most curious and interesting inner
chambers and beds The story of
their winter retirement reads like
Romance, though it may be prosaic
enough to the hermit sleepers them
Selves. Science has uncovered some
of them, while they were still dream
ing, and, in defiance of Mother Nature,
sacrificed their little lives that the
lord of creation, man, may know just
how they are protected, and guarded
and kept alive during the bitter cold
of winter
Apparently the most interesting of
these little sleepers-those whose
winter history reads most like ro-
mance-are among the lowest Gre
atures in the scale of physical exist
ence. What a beautiful and wonder
ft;l and poetic life chapter, for in
stance, is that of the common water
spider, whose winter chamber and bed
is bubble of air. which he takes
down with him, entangled in the long
hairs of his legs and body, to the bot
torn of some deep and still pool! In
this fragile crystal chamber the
spider sleeps all winter. secure and
comfortable, so long as nothing
breaks the bubble. He must have
little air, but bubbleful suffices him.
If his chamber breaks, he browns
Just like any other air-breathing
creature.
Then there is that other curious
SPIDER, LUe tIdp-uOOi SpiuSi, "ht -
as confirmed a landlubber as his
cousin is a skipper-how does he
sleep during the winter? He burrows
like a woodchuck, and lines his hole
with a warm protective tubing OF silk,
which keeps out the cold so effective
" that the temperature of he spiders
burrow is generally 20 degrees above
that Of the outside air. Indeed, the
temperature of this silk-lined cham
Der seldom falsl to the freezing point,
and the discovery of a frozen trap
door spider, whose burrow has not
been injured in any way, is not on
record.
The snail is another odd and snug
little sleeper. He crawls into some
deep crevice, or under log or stont,
closes the entrance to his shell with
iight membranous curtain like drum
head; draws himself little further
back and hangs another curtain
sometimes even a third, and goes
neacefulIy TO sleep, confident that
lack Frost can never pass his double
or triple lines of fertilization.
One species of the grub is intel
ligent enough-"canny enough, as
the Scotch would say-to know that
decomposition produces heat; SO ne
crawls for his winter bed into a heap
Of rotting wood or a pile OF manure.
Here is headpiece for you, in the case
of a creature that can hardly be SAID
TO have, morphologically, a distinct
head
Snakes. frogs and lizards force
themselves as far as possible into sort
earth, or seek a deep crevice under
ground, and sink into state OF coma
in many cases without apparent sch
sation. and with hardly any outward
evidence of the continuance OF lie.
A number of snakes often coil them
selves tightly together into a ball
and thus establish sort of clearing
house of warmth and vitality that
enables them to weather the crisis OF
the cold