Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1885-02-19
NO.. 8.

On the plains, sometimes, q man is frozen to
death, but this does often happen. 1t is no
Joke to be caught in blizzard on the prai
ries. It happened to me once a little north
of Medicine Hat 1t was in January, and
the thermometer was about five degrees be-
low zero and the wind blew at the rate OF
thirty miles an hour. l was travelling with
a half-breed guide and dog sleigh. We
upset the sleigh and got the dogs and our.
selves under it as we'll as we could, wrapped
the furs around us, and let it blow away.
The snow soon piled over us until we had
an irregular wall a quarter of mile long and
ten feet high on each side of us next morn
ing, when the blizzard abated. This may
surprise you, but a mound, six inches high,
is enough to enable the snow to lodge and
pile up until it forms blockade miles long
on the prairies.
eyes, it is cold; but it is not the cold we
object to so much as the length of the Win
ters. The snow is on the ground for seven
months in our northwest. Fortunately
there is not much of it. We never have
more than foot of snow during the winter,
or just enough to make good sleighing. At
the base of the Rocky mountains the ground
is clear of snow for the greater part Of the
season. The climate there is as temperate
as it is in New York. That is owing to the
| Chinook Winds These winds come from
the Pacific ocean through the Chinook
pass. They affect the temperature of the
adjoining country. Out there l have seen
cattle feeding on the plains in January and
February. But the region thus affected is
small, and we have no other modifying in
! fiuences on our climate.
zone of the best proofs can give you of
| the severity of the climate is found in the
| fact that you may travel for hundreds OF
miles on the plains without seeing boulder
cfor FROG fN11lNy
They burst assunder as though blown apart
| with gunpowder, and solid materials have
| thus been converted into soil. The worst of
it is the cold comes so early and stays so
| late. We can raise neither apples, pears
nor peaches up there. Nor can we raise
Indian corn, and for that reason our Cana
dian northwest can never be great pork
country. Small fruit, cherries, raspberries,
currants and strawberries, however, will
ripen, but we cannot hope to make fruit
abundant. The cold is too severe to enable
us to raise anything but the hardest kinds
| of fruit and cOrn-those which ripen early.
ave who live in the cities do not suffer
from the cold half as much as the farmers.
Wood is scarce all over the country, and the
farmer is obliged to ecOnomiZe his fuel.
This is one of his greatest hardships. Along
| the line of railway he can get coal, which is
now found in great abundance on the Sas-
katchawan, but when the farmer has to de-
pend on wood for fuel he has hard time of
| it in winter. He sometimes makes fuel out
of his manure heap in the autumn, after the
manner of the Menonites, by mixing it with
straw and working it into the consistency OF
peat. This burns we'll, but in the end it
will be expensive. He must let his fire 60
out every night and light it next morning
when the thermometer may be 20, 30, or
40 degrees below zero. His dog generally
sleeps at the foot of his bed. Everything in
the house freezes. If he happens to put his
lips to any iron substance before he lights
the fire his lips stick to it and the skin peels
off before he can release them. If his cellar
is not good he will find everything he has,
in the way of eatables, frozen. He never
wears boots. If he did his feet would freeze.
He puts on three or four pairs of stockings
and pair of moccasins. If he wants to
visit a neighbor, who probably lives miles
away, he must travel on snOWshOes. The
air is so rarefed that his coming can be
heard a mile away. AS he beats down the
snow in walking the the noise will make
dog bark at the distance of half a mile.
1.-THE stiffness is depressing. He never
sees bird all through the winter, and the
sight of coyote is always welcome. The
'caw-caw' of a crow to him is messenger OF
| Joy for it preludes the spring. That cav
caw' is the northwest Canadian farmers
opera, and no lover of music ever listened to
the queen of the operate stage with more
pleasure than he does to the crow as it gives
out its 'caw' over the bleak plains of Mani
toba, Alberta or Asnab0id.-Ne,c York Sun.