Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1885-03-13
LIFE IN A COLD COUNTY,
A woMAH's LETTER DESCRIBING
MANITOBA.
Where the Thermometer Ranges from
I25 Degrees i'm summer 90 90 He
low Zero i'm Winter.

Where the Thermometer Ranges from
I25 Degrees i'm summer 20 so He
low Zero i'm Winter.
Life in Manitoba is not as pleasant as
it has been pictured. A woman writing
from near Winnipeg says: I" In such a
thinly settled country 1t is naturally very
difficult to get any sort of female help.
have to make even the bread and the
butter, and prepare everything that is
eaten. If l drive twelve miles with
linen, and again the same distance to
fetch it home, l can, by dint Of great
persuasion and pretty speeches, OCCASION
ally induce a half-breed woman to wash
it. She charges me 81 dozen, and
sends it back clean, certainly, but neither
ironed nor even folded. OF course, on
the prairie we are our own landlords, and
live rent free on our own homestead,
Taxes don't amount TO much, and food is
no great expense, as game of all sorts
abounds. Fish, too, is easy to get, as
we are not far from Lake Manitoba, and
in winter we can buy frozen fish from
the Indians at trihing cost.
Prairie chicken, wild duck, part
ridge, snipe, and plover are very plenti-
full, and may be had for the shooting
When l say that believe there is hardly
q fenced farm between us and the North
Pole, it is plain that poaching is an I'M
known crime. Animals of most sorts are
in the neighborhood. We can sit at
night by the fire and hear pack of
prairie wolves 20 by in full cry across
~
black bears are scarcer still, though more
than one has been tracked and shot with.
in mile of our house. All the country
between us and Winnipeg is fiat and not
at all picturesque, though by going as
far West as Brandon you come to "roll-
ing" prairie. In early summer the ground
is carpeted with the loveliest wild flow
ers. We are fortunate in having land
which is nicely timbered. 1t not only
gives us a pleasanter prospect than the
dreadful monotony of treeless fiat, but
it also supplies us with firing.
"And this brings me to speak about
my experience of the climate of Mani.
toba. The variations of temperature arc
very great. have seen the thermome.
ter stand at 1876 degrees inside tent in
summer, and at fifty eight degrees below
zero; or ninety degrees below freezing
point, outside the house in winter. Such
Arctic cold would be uncomfortable if the
air were not so wonderfully dry and
clear-and often very still-that it does
not seem half as cold as it really
is. Then the changes of weather
are not generally very sudden,
the heat and cold are very regular, and
in mid seasons the thermometer does not
fluctuate much. Perhaps few homely
details may best serve to illustrate what
winter in Manitoba means. The snow
outside our house is from six to ten feet
deep from November to April. Mecca
sins, made by Indians of moose. skin, are
used instead of shoes to cover the feet,
which are first cased in several pairs OF
stockings. We were forced to melt
snow for all the water we used last
winter. The cold is so intense that when
melted snow water is poured from the
boiler into a pail, and taken at once
across to the stable, the ice on it fire.
quently has to be broken with a stick
befoee the cattle can drink. 1t is rather
q common sight to see people partly
frozen. The part affected turns as white
as marble, and loses all feeling. Unless
you see yourself in glass. or are told O.
it, you are not conscious of being frozen
In this plight it is best not to go near
fire, as sudden thawing is very painful
People generally try friction, rubbing
themselves with snow, or bette
still, with paraffin oil. Occasionally
when one is frozen and far from help
the part frozen, if an extremity, viii
snap off. Last year man living abou
thirty miles from us was told that his ca
was frozen; he put up his hand to feel
and the ear dropped off in his hand
Limbs sometimes have to be amputateC
from severe frost bites. My kittens ear
froze and broke off last winter, and
neighbors pony lost ears in the SAM
way.
81 was surprised when I first founC
the mustard frozen in my mustard pot
which stood foot from the kitchen
stovepipe and two feet above the stove
where there was blazing fire all da,
and every day through the winter Ye
the mustard froze between every meal
Breed froze if left for half an hour in 6
room without fire. Such stories mus
sound almost incredible except to thos
who, like myself, have witnessed thu
facts, though, of course, only in tn
most severe weather. Winter is, o
course, not equally severe throughout
Partsof my description applies only to it
colder half But to woman the mos
trying part of winter in Manitoba j
not its severity for you live in a war;
house-but its length. Snow lay on tn
ground last season for six months and
half, and the great lakes were frozen fc
the same period"