Ila Jean Stuart by Eggington Bert Corkey Shirley Osmond by Eggington Ralph Crawford Reva Brown by West There is something about a formal dance that is definitely conducive to romance. Girls in long dresses with lots of swish, well-groomed men, and fragrant corsages combined with good music and soft lights have a way of making eyes close dreamily and arms close more tightly around the object of one's affections. Page Six The Sleep Marathon by Wayne Furniss Did you ever long to escape from it all? Everyone will agree as to the merits of blissful sleep as a way of escaping at the end of a hard day, yet man, presumably at the top of the evolutionary cycle, has lost the art of the long winter sleep the real escape enjoyed by representative members of every group of vertebrates except birds. A farmer loading hay in eastern Idaho taught himself an interesting lesson about the way animals spend the winter. While the highly developed man toiled in a winter to keep the food chain clanking, he uncovered one of nature's lower creatures that had solved the problem. It was a grey ground squirrel common to the area. Observing that it seemed unhurt, he dropped it into the pocket of his heavy coat and finished loading his sleigh. Returning home he forgot the incident and hung the coat inside the warm house. Some time later, he and his family were electrified by the shrill "Tr-rr-t" of the now thoroughly alert little animal. Warmed inside the house, it thought spring was approaching and greeted it cheerfully. Literally thousands of these animals per square mile may sleep most of the winter, but they are only a fraction of the population of the area that does so. The wood-chuck, chipmunk, field mouse, racoon, and skunk, to name a few more, follow their example to some extent. The chipmunk is a light sleeper. He may store up thirty pounds of nuts and seeds for his winter menu. Hollow trees or logs, stumps, burrows, and natural caverns may house these denizens of the wild while winter roars at the "higher forms." Miners on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains once dug into an abandoned tunnel which, to their surprise, they found converted into a Bruin's bedroom. They closed the tunnel with a temporary fill but at times were sent scurrying about in panic as the bear moved about in restless slumber. Perhaps she was dreaming of the cold outdoors seen in her youth. Not all the flies one sees in the spring are of early vintage. They may be last fall's late leaves still clinging tenaciously to the bough. Female mosquitoes have lived more than two months in a cave after mating. Snails, typical sluggards in their daily activity, may often be doubly so in sleep. An Egyptian desert snail, pinned up as an empty shell, slept from 1846 to 1850 in a British museum. One wonders what finally did awaken this sleeper separated from jangling alarm clocks and wives. The purpose of such a process has never been thoroughly explained, nor has it been decided whether it is injurious or beneficial to the party concerned. Animals may use the long sleep to escape the cold. However, two insects, the December moth and the mottled umber, appear as adults only in winter; the cold does not seem to bother them. Some caterpillars lay eggs fifty feet above ground. These hatch in about a month and then sleep placidly in some nearby crevice in the bark all winter. The pearl-bordered fritillary hatches and feeds about a month. Then it sleeps the winter out on the underside of the leaves of the dog-violet. It has been observed that the healthiest specimens come from the coldest and wettest places. Does the cold bother the common hedge-hog? Possibly. Late in the fall he only comes out on the coldest nights. Unlike man, he learns by experience. He goes back and sleeps the rest of the winter. Woodchucks go to sleep at the Autumnal Equinox when it is still warm. They awaken at the Vernal Equinox and come out despite the fact that snow may still be on the ground. A more likely assumption is that hibernation is an adaptation to escape the food shortage. This is borne out by the fact that many of those concerned store up body fat in the season of plenty and then absorb it during sleep. The marmot, at six thousand feet altitude, goes to sleep in mid-August. Members of the same species living farther down where green food is obtainable, do not go to sleep for another month. The habits of a northern brown bear family are somewhat different. Papa and the immature young of either sex stay out in the cold while Mama hunts a nice warm bedroom where her young are born. Perhaps that is why Mama is not disposed to face the cold. Another reason for hibernation may be the need of rest. Toads in an aquarium, where temperature and food remain constant, were observed to take an occasional nap perhaps of several weeks' duration. Spiders, unfortunately, never hibernate, but they have been known to go several months without food and not suffer. During this condition breathing almost stops and the temperature slumps. The dormouse, which sleeps for six months, curls up into a knot like a first string baseball pitcher. He becomes, so cold and rigid that he may be rolled across the floor like a clod. Unlike man, who only threatens to die when jolted out of deep slumber, the dormouse can actually be killed by being awakened too suddenly. Some people, hearing of the long slumber of the mudfish or lungfish, with members in Africa, South America, and Australia, connect it with hibernation. This curious creature, larger specimens of which reach six feet in length, has comfortably solved life's equation. When the stream or lake dries up, he digs a foot or so into the mud, curls up putting his tail over his head, and begins to use the air bladder to breathe. He absorbs body fat and even some of the muscular tissue from the tail. He may remain inactive for five years. This is not hibernation, however, but aestivation, or summer-time drying out. Aestivation is also practiced by alligators and crocodiles. The Iberian water-tortoise does it by sleeping under ledges of rock. The large Madagascar insectivore, tenrec, aestivates during the hottest time of the year when food is scarce. But is it the food shortage? In the London Zoo they did the same although there was plenty of food and it was not hot. Although experimentation on this subject has not been thorough, it has been observed that hormones, those incomparable body regulators, seem to be involved in these processes. At any rate, hibernation and aestivation seem to be adaptations for survival, with pre-disposing factors possessing a great deal of variety. There are worse ways than snoozing to spend weeks or months of spare time. Page Seven