The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1877-06-20
HOW 1T FEELS TO FREEZE.
A Record Of Personal Experience on the
Grent Plnins-Entertnining Reading for
summer Weather.


Great notwithstanding Reading for
Summer Weather.
A writer in the New York Sun gives
graphic account of his experience during
o trip in February across one of the
great plains of British North America.
He was accompanied by stalwart
French half-breed, and had for convey
ances two sledges drawn by eight dogs.
At first the journey was pleasant enough,
and unattended by much inconvenience;
but the weather gradually became cold
er, and on the afternoon of the sixth
day they were compelled to halt on the
bare plain, with no trees or other shelter
handy. The writer goes on to say
It was about six o'clock in the evening
when, after scooping O hole in the snow,
and building about it q miniature en-
bankment Of sledges and baggage, we
lay down in our overcoats and caps, with
the thermometer showing thirty-one de-
grees below zero. Yet I had no fear,
no thought even, of freezing to death.
Lying down, rs we did, with stiffened
limbs and blistered feet, sleep came to
us by the sheer force of fatigue.
I did not awake until about eleven
o'clock, when was aroused by sharp
blow from the half-breed, Lavie. He
told me that it was growing much colder,
and that the wind had veered. Hastily
rising, we shifted about, and then crept
back under the blankets, Lavie on the
windward side. I soon feel asleep.
I awoke again, as nearly as I can judge
about half-past twelve o'clock, to gen,
eral consciousness OF. increasing cold. I
found myself shivering all over. Upon
speaking to my companion, I discovered
that he was wide awake he had been
unable to sleep. He told me he had en-
deavored to coax the sledge dogs upon
the blankets; but, having been repeat
edly driven from that comfortable posi-.
ton on previous nights, they had refused
his overtures. The gale seemed to have
increased in violence, and the minute
particles of snow interfered uncomfort-
ably with respiration. The cold was so
intense as to produce stinging sensa-
tion in the nostrils and dryness Of the
throat whenever the head was exposed.
I took the thermometer from the snow by
my head, and found it indicating, as we'll
as I could make out by the uncertain
light, forty-four degrees below zero.
Covering ourselves up as snugly as pos
sible, and lying clcee to each other, we
talked for o time about the severity Of
the storm, and its probable duration I;
then gradually relapsed into silence. I
recall feeling the skim Oh my arms and
limbs it was cold to the touch. My
bones, too, were cold, and I seemed to
feel their articulation distinctly over
every portion of the body. They gave
me the impression of foreign substance
which had been introduced somehow into
the flesh, and which had not as yet been
raised to an equal temperature with the
bodily tissues.
Soon I was conscious of growing
colder; my limbs, especially, felt heavier
and chillier. A peculiar sensation, as
if the flesh for the depth of a quarter or
half an inch was frozen solid and the
congealment rapidly extending to the
bone, began to creep over me. The
bones themselves ut times felt like red
hot iron bars; then as suddenly became
cold again. I noticed, also, an increased
labor in the action of the heart, and
could distinguish the pulsations very
easily. At every throb 1 seemed to feel
the blood strike the end of the veins and
arteries in the extromities. This after q
time produce q slight dizziness in the
head, and a labored respiration.
As the leaden hours went on, the
sensation of surface freezing, felt before
in the limbs, extended to the trunk Of
the body. My thoughts, hitherto 80
versatile, grew less connected, changing
frequently from subject to subject, and
finally narrowing down to my own
sufferings. I noticed that Lavie spoke
to me more frequently than before, and
shook me repeatedly. Yet even then I
had no thought of danger.
During this whole time, covering O
period of two hours or more, 1 was
shivering and shaking without intermis-
sion. 1 repeatedly endeayored to con-
troll my nerves, and lie quietly in one
position !; but the effort, although de-
termined, WAS of no avail in few
minutes I was shaking as violently rs
before. At last I noticed that I was
becoming quieter, but that the mental
suffering was greater. My only thong hit
now was to get warm. No earthly pos
session WAS too dear now to be sacrificed
for heat.
After the lapse of m hour, I began to
get warm-that is, I had the sensation
of returning warmth and comfort.
Pinching the flesh in several places pro-
duced only numb, prickly feeling,
similar to that when limb is asleep.
But I was comfortable and happy now,
because was warm. Igrew angry with
nv companion because of his unwearied
thumps and the answers he required to
his questions. He bored me. I wanted
to be let alone. I wanted to lie quite
still and dream. Fully conscious that if
went to sleep I should never awake, [
was perfectly willing, anxious, to 60 to
sleep. I even recall picturing drowslly
to myself how I should look in the
morning when I was dead.
As I grow warmer, I ceased to pay at
tention to the thumpings of my com.
panion, or to his questions. I gathered
myself up and lay thinking how COM
Portable I was. Pretty soon I began to
doze, then to awake suddenly, when l
received more severe blow than usual.
T awoke once more, to see the half breed
sitting up and bending eagerly over my
face-and then I was dead. Sensation,
volition, all intelligence, had left me.
In thirty OF forty minutes, an hour at
most, the paralysis would extend from
the brain into the spinal system, stop
ping the function of respiration, and the
living action would cease for good.
From this living death I was aroused
by what seemed to me most ,lnpro-
voked assault. The powerful half breed,
holding me in an iron grasp by the COL
lar, was engaged in kicking and cutting
my limp body in the most savage manner.
Several times I became conscious Of
undergoing this severe treatment, only
to drop down and fall asleep again the
moment he relaxed his hold. At length,
however, he persistertly kicked anu
cuffcd me until, annoyed beyond ell
durance, I began feebly to rctaliate.