Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1881-02-10
Cold. Weather Yarns.

sIneverknew until thenextspring how
low the mercury did get that year, = said
Sheriff Ridgway. Eve had Their
mometer big enough to keep account of
the weather for the whole State. 1t
was three feet long, and had bulb at
the bottom as big as turnip. We
didn't bother with degrees on that Their
momeier. We always said 1t was so
many inches below or so many inches
above zero. The thermometer hung on
an apple tree in the garden at our old
place on the Lackawack. In the spring
of 80 / was spading up the garden. I'M
der this apple tree | struck vein of
quicksilver. I Thought had discovered
mine Of the stuff, and says to myself,
This ends the lumber business |
calls the old gentleman out and told
him I'd struck quicksilver mine, and
that when the company was formed to
work it would take nothing less than
treasurer of it. He didn't say anything,
but he looked at the quicksilver | had
in my hand then at me, and then at the
thermometer that hung on the tre }. i
looked at that, too. The bulb was
bursted. Then I understood the situa-
ton. The mercury had settled foot
and half below zero on the thermome-
ter. That wasn't as low rs the weather
called for, SO it pushed the bottom out
of the bulb, went down three feet to the
ground and dropped six inches under
the surface before it reached the level of
the temperature. Don't go up along
the Lackawack and talk about the Their
mometer being 90 deg. below zero, for
there are people up there yot who re-
member our big thermometer and the
winter the mercury went five feet below
zero, and they'll laugh at you.
!" I've always said that these little
thermometers we have nowadays amt
no account, said Billy Watson. "What
chance has weather on a thermometer
six or eight inches long, anyhow n
ait don't have no chance at all, said
Peacock Brink. "Down tiny house,
where there air 10 th'mometer to bother
with the weather, bets it's fifteen de-
gree colder'n It's up here.
"Do YOU remember the winter that
Red Drake was chased by deer in the
valley woods, and had a narrow escape
from death, all owing to the weather,
asked Pete Quick. "Cold as it was,
Red was hunting. He shot at the deer,
and the deer got mad and took after him.
Red dropped his gun, and made for a
tree. 1t was so cold that the breath
from the deer's nostrils froze as it shot
out in streams of fog, and before the
deer reached Red two pieces of ice, Fl steen
inches long and two inches and quar-
ter thick, stuck from the animals snout
like the tines of apitchfork. just as Red
u. - -
caught him. One of the pieces of ice
went on one side of Drake, and one on
the other. The tree was just big enough
to fit in between the ends of the two
prongs of ice and hold the deer fast
There they were Red couldn't move,
nor the deer couldn't move. The deer's
breath kept on freezing, and Red looked
back over his shoulder and saw ice
forming all around him. He expected
to be frozen to death. By-and-by when
the circle Of ice had grown so tight
around him that it was hard for him to
breathe, he saw that the deer's nose was
being rapidly closed by the forming ice.
Here was his only hope. If he could
hold out until the breathing Of the deer
was shut off he might escape, for then
the deer would die, and in falling break
the icy bonds. When the ice had closed
around Red SO tight that he could only
get breath about a sixteenth of an inch
in length, kerplunk dropped the deer to
the ground, dead from suffocation, ana
Red was free. On any other day the
wound that Red gave the deer would
have killed it at once. The ball went
clean through the animal but the holes
froze up instantly on each side, and the
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