Sharp County record., 1885-02-12

gTetS DelON zero, DuL Iue Nluu DlGW' dG
the rate of thirty miles an hour. | was
travelling with a half-breed guide and a
dog sleigh. We upset the sleigh, got
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 If
regular wall quarter of mile long
and ten feet high on each side of us
next morning when the blizzard abated.
This may surprise you, but 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 putting bait down the
hole
Eyes, it is cold; but it is not the cold
we object to so much as the length OF
the winters. The snowis 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 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 l 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 fact that you may
travel for hundreds Of miles on the
plains without seeing boWlder or a
stone. The frost pulverizes them. They
burst asunder as though blown apart
with gunpowder, and solid materials
have thus been converted into soil. The
worst of it is that 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 Canadian
Northwest can never be great pork
country. Small fruits, cherries, rasp-
berries, currants and strawberries, how
ever, will ripen, but we can not 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.
"We 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
economic his fuel, This is one of his
greatest hardshps. Along the line of
railway he can get coal, WHICH is now
found in great abundance on the
Saskatchewan. but when the farmer has
to depend on wood for fuel he has a
hard time of it in winter. He some
times makes fuel out of his manure
heap in the autumn, after the manner
of the Mennonites, by mixing it with
straw and working it into the consist
ence of peat. This burns well, but in
the end it will be found expensive. He
must let his fire 60 out every night and
light it next morning when the ther-
momcter may be twenty, thirty, or forty
degrees below zero. His dog generally
sleeps at the foot of his bed. Every
thing in the house freezes. If he hap
pens to put his lips to any iron sub
stance 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 mecca
sins. If he wants to visit q 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 noise will make dog
bark at the distance of half a mile.
The stiffness is depressing. He never
sees bird all through the winter, and
the sight of coyote is always welcome.
The cav, cav of crow to him is
messenger of joy, for it precludes the
spring. That 'caw, cav is the North
west 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 Man
itoba, Alberta, or AsnabOid. He has,
indeed, the aurora to look at in winter,
and he does not tire of it soon either.
The great streamers of tremulous light
are his only outside attractions. lhave
coon more than once these StreamerS