Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1885-08-21

RfNGnhIeoMs AhekHeRA AAGAON af1Noe
Seventy ono degrees below zero means 1889
below freezing point. It was in the Arctic re-
gionH, not far from Backs great hsh river,
when the author was conducting homeward
aledge Journey 10 Hudson's bay in the depth
OF an arctic winter-Novembor December
January, February and Maroh-ihAt be ex-
perienced il. Severe weather-thatia, intense.
ly cod-had set In just before Christmas, in
1879, the thermometer sinking down TO Go
and GS below zero, and never getting above
GO7 below, and we we're having q very hard
time with our sleighing along the river, our
camps at night almost in sight of those we
had left in the morning, 20 close were they
together and 10 slowly did We labor along.
Reindeer, on which we we're relying for our
daily supply of food, we're not found near the
river, and being seen some 10 or IL miles
back from II, l determined to leave its bed
and strike straight for home in Hudson's bay.
We had been gone three or four daya, and
as we ascended the higher lovels the ther-
mometer commenced lowering, and on the 81
OF January, 1880, at O'Clock in the after.
noon, reached 10 below zero, the ooldest we
experienced on our sledRe journey Of nearly
year in length, and the cOldest ever encount-
cred by white men travelling out doors, for
that day we moved camp some 10 or 1 miles
to tho southeastward. The day was not at all
disagreeable, | must say until along toward
the early night, when a slight zephyr, the
merest kind of motion OF the wind that
would hardly rufile the leaves on tree, or
even sufficient to cool the face on a warm
day, sprang up from the southwark, and
slight and insignificant a. 1t was, it cut to
the bone every part Of the body that was ex-
posed, 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 a. much AZ possible, and especially
after we had gotten into camp and got to
work building our snow-houses and digging
through the thick ice Of the lake for fresh
water and 30 lazily did our breath that CON
gealed into miniature clouds float away 10 the
north ward like the little, light cirrus clouds
Of a summer sky, that we knew we'll enough
how terribly cold it must be without lookingAt
the Thermometer that stood at ~ below ze-
70, Fahrenheit
1t is not 30 much the intensity OF the cold,
expressed in degrees on the thermometer
that determines the disagreeableness Of the
Arctic winter weather as il is the force and rel
ative direction of the wind. have found It
far pleRsanter with the thermometer at 90,
or 60, or even 20 below zero, Fahrenheit,
with little or no wind blowing at the time,
than TO face rather stid breeze when the
little tell taleshoxed 10 warmer temperature.
Even an Arctic acclimated white man facing a
good strong wind at 20 or 25' below zero is
almost sure TO find the wind freezing the
nose and cheeks, and the thermometer does
not have to sink over 4 or o to induce the
EsquimauT themselves to keep within their
snug snow. houses under the same oircum-
stances, unless want or famine de mands their
presence in storm. With plenty in the lar
der for all the mouths, brute and human,
none Of thom venture out in such weather.
- Frtdfriek .Schinatka in Ne,o York Times