The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1886-01-20
Winter i'm Manitoba.

The snow outside our house was
from six to ten feet deep from Novem-
Der to April. 1 tried to wear boots
last November and one of my feet
froze. Moccasins, made by the Indians
of moose-skin, are used instead of shoes
to cover the feet, which are first cased
in several pairs of stockings. For
travelling on foot snow-shoes were best.
Mittens supersede gloves during the
winter, as the fingers, if separated,
generally freeze. We were forced to
melt snow for all the water we used
last winter. The cold was so intense
that when melted snow-water was
poured from the boiler into pail and
taken at once across to the stable the ice
on it frequently had to be broken with
a stick before the cattle could drink it,
it froze so hard while being carried a
distance of some sixty yards in the
open air. My husband would some
times come from short visit to the
stock-yard with his nose frozen. In
deed, it is rather common sight to
see people partly frozen. The part af-
fected turns as white as marble and
loses all feeling. Unless you see your
self in a glass, or are told of it, you are
not conscious of being frozen. In this
plight it is not best to 90 near fire,
as sudden thawing is very painful.
People generally try friction, rubbing
themselves with snow, better still, with
paraffine oil. L was surprised when l
first found the mustard freeze in my
mustard-pot, which stood foot from
the kitchen stove-pipe and two feet
above the stove, where there was a
blazing fire all day and every day
through the winter. Yet the mustard
froze between every meal. Bread
froze if left for half an hour in a room
without a fire. once left a pitcher
full of milk in the kitchen all night,
and next morning, on trying to move
it, the pitcher fell to pieces and left the
milk standing solid in it's place. We
could buy frozen milk by the pound
frozen so intensely that when put a
lump of it in tin into the oven or on
the top of the stove the first part that
melted would burn to the tin before the
rest of it had been thawed. / man.
aged to melt it by first chopping the ice
milk into very small pieces. Clothes,
after being dampened and folded,
would freeze together; and when have
been ironing the top of pocket-hand-
kerchief the lower part would freeze to
the table, which was close to roaring
fire. Ironing, under these conditions,
is rather slow work. Such stories must
sound almost incredible, except to those
who, like myself, have witnessed the
facts, though of course only in the
most severe weather. A bearded En-
glishman who stayed with us last win
ter was often forced when he came in
doors to thaw the icicles from his
moustache, which froze to his beard
and hindered him from talking to us.
A pail of water left in the kitchen all
night would freeze solid to the bottom
before morning. In such a climate
every one who can afford it is dressed
in fur. The Winnipeg policemen all
dress in buffalo coats down to the heels
pierce them. Winter is, of course, not
equally severe throughout. Part of
my description applies only to its colder
half. But to woman the most trying
part of winter in Manitoba is not its
severity but its length. Snow lay on
the ground last season for six months
and half, and the great lakes are
frozen for the same period. This
sounds almost uDbearably tedious to
English ears; and ones eyes grow very
weary of the bare, blank whiteness
and long for something green to look
at. Yet the bright, clean, still frost
and brilliant sunshine, glorious skies
and moonlit, aurora-colored nights have
great compensations of their own
Selected.