The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1885-06-26

We were just ready to start when q
sharp wind spraug up from the North
west that felt like score OF razor blades
cutting the face. Had it started fif-
teen or twenty minutes sooner we
would not of thougt of going, but the
distance ahead was such short one
and the road so good over a gently roll.
ing country that we chose 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 along side Of the sledges the
whole way, except one short rest, and
| can assure my readers that when we
reached the snow house of the Kinne
peto Esquimau it was as welcome
refuge as if it had been first 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, Esquimau as
wei 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 with prop
er instrument. When wegot to the end
of our journey we again looked at the
thermometer, and indicated 80 degrees
below zero-that is it had got warmer
by l3 degrees in half to three quart
r,E hn haI fol ~
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 Esquimau,
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-n the quiet air just be-
fore we started than it was when the
wind was raging the highest, but /
think from the incredulous glances
they took at each other that they vot-
ed the thermometer as the most accom-
plished Ananias they evermet, and won
dered how we could be duped into such
preposterous ideas directly against our
common sense and personal observa-
tions of cold They might believe the
world was round and turned over every
day without the polar bears sliding off
the slippery iceburg when it was up
side down, simply because the white
man, their acknowledged superior in
intelligence, had said so, but nothing
would persuade them that when they felt
perfectly comfortable and warm load
| ing the sledge and Harvesting the dogs
it was colder than when their arm and
legs were frozen, and their noses and
cheeks "nipped' most furiously with
the frost We tried to explain the
effect of the wind, but they said they
had known the wind to blow them off
their feet in the summer and not freeze
them a parcticle, and very much pre-
ferrtd to belive that the little thcrmom-
eter told fb, or at least was badly
mistaken. They said they knew it
seemed colder when the wind blew but
thatwas because it actuallywas colder at
those times than others, and not simp-
ly because it seemed so, and here they
. stood firm.
The thermometer stood at seventy
one below Fahrenheit, the unclouded
sky in the vicinity of the sun, hanging
low in the southern horizon, assumed a
/ dull leaden hue, tinged near the sun.
rim with a faint brownish red, not un
, like the skies we see coarsely painted
, on cheap hromo-li,hographs displayed
t for sale in third-rate picture shops. Al
t night time the stars glittered like dia
monds under the electric light, ant
, fairly seem on fire with their brilliant
t radiance. Should you pour water
r CO d water taken from the well dug
, through the ice of the lake near which
D you are camped-upon the surface o.
' the ice, it greets you with an astonish
< ing cracking noise like fire running
D through cedar brush, or like a dozer
/ punches of miniature trecrackers, anC
e the ice, that was so clear before tina
s you almost felt tmid about putting
v your foot on it for fear that it really
t was not there, now instantly turns a
:, white as marble and as hard to Sc,
}, through as so much snow, caused b.
the infinite number of little seams run
e ming in every direction through it iron
,. the unequal expansion. Many of tn
J.. Esquimaux children amuse themselve
t trying this simple experiment unit
f the white spots on the clear ice of tn
l. lake give it most mottled appear
}, ance.
l. Vapor and steam seem to rcll ava
G from everything of living nature, an
If the sledge with ten or fifteen dogs an
d its four or five humans in harness look
n like starting locomotive enveloped i
). its escaping steam, and leaves trail o
0 vapor behind them resembling the dus
e stirred up on well-used road by rol
70 ing wagon wheels. Should the part
n stop to rest in basin-like valley thi
i. vapor rapidly collects as a fog banl
ir and in little while becomes so dens
r. as to obscure the originators from
g. person at a distance, but really make
A. their whereabouts easily determined b
le this very sign. Herds of musk oxe
If and reindeer make their positions Wis
bic by this means at quite long di
r, tances-il the herd be large, four {
IF five miles away, and al from very Fl
A. vorable heights even three or tol
It times this distance, so the Esquimau
lr hunters claim so far away, in fact,
IN has been known to take two days t
" reach them but my readers must be-
h. in mind that a day in the Arctic wi
r, ter is very short, often only an hour
er two long, Even at these wonderf
ne and extreme distances the most kee
m eyed hunters claim land these Esqu
n. mau are never given 10 premediat'
Nv falsehood) that they can tell wheth
,r. the herd is one of musk oxen or rel
MS deer by some varying peculiarities
lie the vapors which did not clear
ar understand, and which | never to-
as an opportunity to practically apply.
on Even the foot of person waikiki
ne along as it is lifted from the grou
BIZ leaves little puff of vapor to hc
ire away from the spot as if the walk
ife had stepped upon sponge saturat