The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-27
sEyENTY-oNE BELOW ZERO.
So Cold that Water Poured on Ice Crackles
Like Brush Fire-The Frigid Arctic.

Nukt u DIuSu uc TfiSiu aICtiGs
Frederick schwatka. in New York Times.
Seventy-one degrees below zero means one
hundred and three degrees below the freezing
point
1t was in the arctic regions. not far from
Backs Great Fish river when the author was
conducting homeward sledge journey to Hud-
sons bay in the depth of an arctic winter-No-
vemher, December January, February and
March-that he experienced it. Severe weather
that is, intensely cold-had set in just before
Christmas in 1879, the thermometer sinking
down to Go degrees below zero. and never getting
above 60 degrees below, and we were having
very hard time with cur sleighing along the
river, our camps at night almost in sight
Of those we had left in the morning, so close
were they together and so slowly did we
labor along. Reindeer which were rely
ing for our daily supply of food were not found
near the river, and being some ten or fif-
teen miles back from it, I determined to leave
its bed and strike straight for home in Hudson's
Bay.
We had been gone two or three days, and as
we assembled the higher levels, the thermometer
commenced lowering, and on the Sd of January,
1880, at o'clock in the afternoon, reached sew
enty one degrees below zezo. the coolest we
perienced on our sledge journey of nearly year
In length, and the coolest ever encountered by
white men travelling out of doors; for that day
moved camp some ten or twelve miles to the
southeastward. The day was not at
s d ao~srs the early m nsht when nn
slight zephyr. the merest kind of motion of the
leaves on tree, even sufficient to cool the
face on warm day, sprang up from the south
ward, and slight and insignificant as 1T was, it
cGt to the bone every part of the body that was
exposed, and which fortunately was only the
face from the eyebrows to the chin and about
half of the cheeks. We turned our backs to-
ward it as much possible. and especially after
We had got into camp and got to work build
ing our snow houses and digging through the
thick ice of the lake for fresh water, and so
lazily did our breath that CONCEALED into minia-
ture clouds float away to the northward, like
the little light cirrus clouds of summer sky,
that we knew well enough how terribly cold it
must be without looking at the Thermometer
that stood at 10 below zero Fahrenheit.
1t is not so much the intensity of the cold. ex
pressed in degrees on the Thermometer. that
determines the dsagreeableness Of arctic winter
weather as it is the force and relative direction
of the wind. / have found it far pleasanter with
the thermometer at 500. 60o, even 70o below
zero, Fahrenheit, with little or no wind blowing
at the time, than to face a rather stiff breeze
when the little tell-tale showed 500 warmer
temperature Even an arctic acclimated white
man facing good, strong wind. at 2Oo or 20
below zero, is almost sure to find the wind freeze
the nose and cheeks and the thermometer does
not have to sink over 40 or 80 to induce the
Eskmos themselves to keep within their snug
snow houses under the same circumstances, un-
less want or famine demands their presence in
the storm. With plenty in the larder for all the
mouths, brute and human, none of them venture
out In such weather
1t is very consoling to add, however, that the
intensely cold temperatures of the arctic are
nearly always accompanied by calmS or at
least by very light winds. and such was the case
on our memorable Sd of January, 1880. In fact,
with the exception of very few quiet days dur
ing the warmest weather of the polar summer,
these clear, quiet, cold ones of the arctic winter
are about the only times when the wind is not
blowing vigorously from some point OF the
compass, or so it seemed at least in that part OF
IL where my travels were cast l doubt. how
ever if there are as many fearful storms during
low temperatures in the arctic as in the far
northwestern part of our own country, where
they are known 'sblizzards." Certainly, in
proportion to the ability of withstanding extreme
cold, and the methods the polar inhabitants have
of combating it, there are no such dangers run
by them of life or discomfort as by our brethren
of the far Northwest when the 'northers" come
down on them in the dead of winter.
There were few exceptions to this general
rule of quiet weather with extreme cold, and
when they had to be endured they were simply
terrible One morning the thermometer at
o'clock showed US that it was sixty eight degrees
below zero But as it was calm and quiet we
paid little attention to it, and harnesse1 our dogs
and loaded our sledges for our days Journey
which was an exceedingly short one of three or
four miles to the snow house of an Eskimo
where could buy reindeer meat for ourselves
and dogs. We were just ready to start when
sharp wind sprang up from the northwest that
felt like a score of razor blades cutting the
face. Had it started fifteen or twenty minutes
sooner would not have thought of going but
the distance ahead was such short one
and the road good, over gently rolling coun-
try, that we chose to go ahead rather than I'M
load our sledges and go back into the same old
amp. We kept the dogs at good round trot,
and ran alongside the sledges the whole way,
Except one short rest, and can assure my read
RS that when we reached the snow-house OF the
lkinnepetoo Eskimos it was as welcome a ref
age as if it had been firstclass hotel. was fro
zen along my left arm from my shoulder to my
wrist, and it was quite painful for a number of
days; and many of the others, Eskimos as
we'll as white men, were also "npped' here
and there more or less severely. The
wind was strong enough to drift the
loose snow along the ground but
suppose our imaginations during such a
strain made us think it was very much stronger
than it really was if we could have measured its
rate with proper instrument When we got to
the end of our journey ! again looked at the
thermometer, and it indicated 500 below zero,
that is it had got warmer l3o in a half hour
to three-quarters of hour, the time it had
taken us to get through, although it seemed as
If it might have been thirteen times thirteen de-
grees colder, judging by the way we felt. told
the Eskimos who had been with us the
short trip as sledge drivers and so on that it
was much coider-as shown by the instrument
in the quiet air just before we started than it
was wien the wind was raging the high
est, bat | think from the incredulous
gances they took at each other that they voted
the thermometer as the most accomplished
Ananias they ever met and wondered how
could be duped into such preposterous ideas
directly against our common sense and personal
observations of cold They might believe the
world was round. and turned over every day
without the polar bears sliding off the
slippery iceberg when it was upside
down, simply because the white man,
their acknowledged superior in intelligence,