. Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage round the world of 'Beagle,' under the command of Captain Fitz Roy. ed above5 5°. On the eleven succeeding days, in which all living thingsbecame so animated, the mean was 5 8°, and the range in themiddle of the day between sixty and seventy. Here then anincrease of seven degrees in mean temperature, but a greaterone of extreme heat, was sufficient to awake the functions oflife. At Monte Video, from which we had just before sailed,in the twenty-three days included between the 26th of
. Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage round the world of 'Beagle,' under the command of Captain Fitz Roy. ed above5 5°. On the eleven succeeding days, in which all living thingsbecame so animated, the mean was 5 8°, and the range in themiddle of the day between sixty and seventy. Here then anincrease of seven degrees in mean temperature, but a greaterone of extreme heat, was sufficient to awake the functions oflife. At Monte Video, from which we had just before sailed,in the twenty-three days included between the 26th of Julyand the 19th of August, the mean temperature from 276observations was 58°.4; the mean hottest day being 65°.5, and CLIMATE AND HYBERNATION 103 the coldest 460. The lowest point to which the thermometerfell was 4i°.5, and occasionally in the middle of the day itrose to 6g° or yo°. Yet with this high temperature almostevery beetle, several genera of spiders, snails, and land-shells,toads and lizards, were all lying torpid beneath stones. Butwe have seen that at Bahia Blanca, which is four degrees south-ward, and therefore with a climate only a very little colder,. SKINNING UJI OR WATER SERPENTS. this same temperature, with a rather less extreme heat, wassufficient to awake all orders of animated beings. This showshow nicely the stimulus required to arouse hybernating animalsis governed by the usual climate of the district, and not by theabsolute heat. It is well known that within the tropics thehybernation, or more properly aestivation, of animals is deter-mined not by the temperature, but by the times of Rio de Janeiro, I was at first surprised to observe that,a few days after some little depressions had been filled withwater, they were peopled by numerous full-grown shells andbeetles, which must have been lying dormant. Humboldt hasrelated the strange accident of a hovel having been erectedover a spot where a young crocodile lay buried in the hardened 10
Size: 1306px × 1913px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, booksubjectge, booksubjectvoyagesaroundtheworld
