The Democratic advocate., 1885-07-18
VOL. XX.-NO. SO.

or at least by very light winds, and such
was the case on our memorable Sd of Jan
uary, 1880. In fact, with the exception
of very few quiet days during the warm
est weather of the polar Summer, these
clear, quiet, cold ones of the artic 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 it where my travels were cast
| doubt, however, 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 as
'blizzards. :" 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
oar brethren of the far Northwest when
the "northers" come down ON them in the
dead of Winter
There were few exceptions to this gen.
eral rule of quiet weather with extreme
cold, and when they had to be endured
they were simply terrible. One morning
the thermometer at 8 o'clock showed us
that it was $50 below zero, but as it was
calm and quiet we paid little attention to
it, and harnessed 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 Esquimau
where we could buy reindeer meat for our
selves and dogs. We were just ready to
start when a sharp wind sprang up from
the northwest that felt like score OF
razor blades cutting the face. Had it
started 15 or 20 minutes sooner we would
not have thought of going, but the distance
ahead was such short one and the road
so good over gently rolling country that
we choose to go ahead rather than unload
our sledges and go back into the same old
camp. We kept the dogs at good round
trot and ran alongside the sledges the
whole way except one short rest, and can
assure my readers that when we reached
the snow house of the Kinnepetoo Esqui-
mau it was as welcome refuge as if it had
been a frst-class hotel was frozen along
my left arm from my shoulder to my wrist,
and it was quite painful for number Of
days; and many of the others, Esquimaus
as well as white men, were also "nipped'
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 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 550
below zero, that is, it had gotten warmer
by 13O in half hour to three-quarters OF
| an hour, the time it had taken us to get
through, although it seemed as if it might
have been thirteen times thirteen degrees
colder, judging by the way we felt. told
the Esquimaus, who had been with us on
the short trip as sledge drivers and so on
that it was much colder-as shown by the
instrument--in the quiet air just before we
started than it was when the wind was
raging the highest, but [ think from the
incredulous glanees they took at each other
that they voted the thermometer as the
most accomplished Ananias they ever met,
and wondered how we 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 ice
berg when it was upside down, simply be-
cause the white man, their acknowledged
superior in intelligence, had said so, but
nothing would persuade them that when
they felt perfectly comfortable and warm
loading the sledge and harnessing the dogs
it was colder than when their arms and
legs were frozen, and their noses and cheeks
''nipped" most ferociously with the frost
We tried to explain the effect of the wind
but they said they had known the wind tC
blow them off their feet in the Summer and
not freeze them q particle, and very much
preferred to believe that the little ther-
mometer told fib, or at least was badly
mistaken. They said they knew it seemed
colder when the wind blew, but that wa:
because it actually was colder at those times
than others, and not simply because ii
seemed so, and here they stood firm.
The thermometer stood at -710 Fab
renheit, the unclouded sky in the vicinity
of the sun, hanging low in the southern
horizon. assumed dull leadan hue, tinged
near the suns rim with faint, brownish
red, not unlike the skies we see coarsely
painted on cheap hromo-ithographs dis
PLAYED for sale in third-rate picture shops
At nighttime the stars glitter like diamonds
under the electric light, and fairly seem on
fire with their brilliant radiance. Should
YOU pour water-cold water taken from
the well dug through the ice of the lake
near which you are camped-upon the sur
face of the ice, it greets you with an as
tonishing cracking noise like fire running
through cedar brush, or like a dozen
punches of miniature crackers, and the
ice that was so clear before that you almost
felt timid about putting your foot on it for
fear that it really was not there, now in
stantly turns as white as marble and as hard
to see through as so much snow, caused by
the infinite number Of little seams running
in every direction through it from the un-
equal expansion. Many of the Esquimau
children amuse themselves trying this sim
pie experiment until the white spots on the
clear ice of the lake give it most mottled
appearance.
Vapor and steam seem to roll away from
everything ofa living nature, and the sledge
with its 10 or Is dogs and its 4 or 5 hu-
mans in harness looks like starting loco
motive enveloped in its escaping steam, and
leaves trail of vapor behind them resem-
bling the dust stirred up on well-used
road by rolling wagon wheels. Should the
party halt to rest in basin-like valley this
vapor rapidly collects as fog hank, and
in a little while becomes so dense as to OBJ
scure the originators from person at a
distance but really makes their whereabouts
easily determined by this very sign. Herds
of musk oxen and reindeer make their po-
sitions visible by this means at quite long
distances the herds be large, four or five
miles away, and at from very favorable
heights even three or four times this dis
tance, so the Esquimau hunters claim; SO
far away. in fact, that it has been known
to take two days sledging to reach them;
but my readers must bear in mind that a
day in the arctic Winter is very short, Of
ten only an hour or two long. Eveu at
these wonderful and extreme distances the