The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1885-01-23
REALLY COLD.
Talk with a Canadian About the
Weather in Manitoba.
How tho Farmer Dresses-W What He Eats
His Daily Life--The Intense Heat of the
Summer-Keeping Warm
in Winter.


nipeg to representative of the New
York SIN, during the cold snap few
days ago. "Cold! Why surely you
don't call this cold. Up in my country
it is occasionally so cold at this season
of the year that the COWS give ice-creanl
when they are MIXED. / tell you that
there can be no trihing with the cold
up there. Look at the way we dress.
In winter we all wear furs. The police
men at Winnipeg have buffalo coats
down to their heels, and every man,
rich or poor, in the Northwest must
wear fur cap. have known the cold
to penetrate the skull of man who
went out one day with an ordinary felt
hat and brain-fever carried him off in
three days. The streets of Winnipeg
Just now are full of men who move
about like animals in menagerie- cages.
You see nothing but beaver and otter,
and Persian lamb and seal, and mink
and raccoon, and marten and muskrat,
and all the furs that ever adorned the
Cloths or Ostro-Goths, who first brought
the choice furs of the North to Southern
and Central Europe. And the sleiohs
are covered with black and brown bear,
and grizzly skins and buffalo robes,
while an occasional Astrakhan gives
evidence of luxury and costly furs.
Without furs we could not live in win
ter up in that country. We not only
use them as articles of luxury, as the
Chinese use the ermine, sable or the
fiery fox, but we are obliged to use
them as articles of necessity And ev-
cry piece of skin is utilized The hardy
Voyageurs and coureurs du bois dress
themselves in bucksin with head-dresses
of wolf, lynx, badger or wildcat hides,
while silver and blue-fox fms may be
seen on the heads of the rich. A man
must be very hard up in Winnipeg who
does not own fur coat, cap and gloves
or mittens. A walk through the streets
may be turned into lesson in natural
history by those who read as they run.
In fact a great many people buy more
expensive furs tnan they can afford.
Winter is our season of extravaganza,
and in our attempt to possess costly
furs we often 90 ruinously beyond our
means.
LAS for the cold," he continued, cit
Is severe, but we do not feel it as much
us you might fancy. We are dressed
for it, and our houses are built to resist
it. All our houses have double doors
and double windows. Fires are, of
course, kept going night and day. We
are not much out of doors in winter,
and yet nearly everybody gets frostbit-
ten at times. When we see man on
the street with white spot on his
cheek ornose we stop and point to the
afflicted part He will understand at
once. If the weather is very cold we
can't speak to each other very well,
Tor our muSt&ches freeze to our boards
and form a crust of ice over our mouths.
We must thaw this off before we can
talk. On the plains, sometimes, man
is frozen to death, but this does not oft
en- happen. 1t is no joke to be caught
IN blizzard on the prairies. 1t hap
pened to me once u little north of
Medicine Hat. 1t was in January,
and the thermometer was about five de-
grees below zero, but the wind blew at
the rate of thirty miles an hour. was
travelling with a half-breed guide and
dog sleigh, We upset the Sleigh cot
the dogs and ourselves under it as well
as we could. wrapped the furs around
us, and let it blow away. The snow
soon piled over us until we had an ir-
regular wall quarter of a mile long
and ten feet high on each side of us
next morning 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 a blockade five miles long on the
prairieS. AS for the dogs we fed them
on fish. We gave each dog a fish at
the end of days journey Fish are
light to carry, and the dogs like them.
We can, too, if near the lake, ALWAYS
get fresh supply by cutting through
the ice and pHtting a bait down the
hole.
YES, it is cold; but it is not the cold
we object to so much as the length of
the winters. The snow is on the ground
for seven months in our Northwest.
Fortunately there is not much of it.
We never have more than a 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 tenn
perate as it is in New York. This is
owing to the Chinook winds These
winds come from the Pacific OCEAN
through the Chinook Pass. They affect
the temperature of The adjoining coun-
try. Out there / have seen cattle feed
ing on the plains in January and Feb
ruary. But the region thus affected is
small, and we have no other modifying
influences in our climate.
The absence of great bodies of
water is, in my opinion, the chief cause
Of the intense cold in our Canadian
Northwest. One of the best proofs
can give you Of the severity of the eli
mate is found in the factsthat vo, may