The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1886-04-03
THIBODAUX, La, SATURDAY, APRIL 3, 1856.
Seyenty.One Below Zero.

means one-hundred and three degrees
below the freezing point.
It was in the arctic regions, not far
from Backs Great Fish River, when
the author was conducting homeward
sledge Journey to Hudson's Bay in the
depth of al arctic winter-N November,
December, January, February, and
March-that he experienced it. Sc
we're weather-that is, intensely cold
had set in just before Christmas in
1879, the thermometer sinking down to
65 degrees below zero, and never get
ting above 60 degrees below, and we
were having very hard time with our
sleighng along the river. our camps at
night almost in sight of those We had
lett in the morning, SO close We're they
together ard SO slowly did we labor
along. Reindeer, on which we were
relving for our daily supply Of food,
were not found near the river, and be-
ing seen some ten or fifteen miles back
from it. | determined to leave its bed
sons iiay.
We had been gone two or three DAYS,
and as we asccndei TIE hieher levels,
the III Inometer commenced lowering,
and CT tie ID OF January, - ., 1T )
oclcci. III the afternoon, reached seven
ty-onc degrees below zero. the coldest
We experienced on our sledge Journey
OF fnear!v year in length, and the cold
est ever encountered by white men
travelling out Of doors for that day we
moved camD some ten or twelve miles
to the south aS5ward. The dav was
not at all Iii az aeahle, | must say, un-
til long towari TIE dreary night, when
slight zephyr, the merest kind of mo-
tion of the leaves on a tree, or even
sufficient to cool the face on warm
day, sprang up from the southwark,
and slight and insignificant rs it was,
it cut to the bone every part of the
body that was exposed, and which for
tunatelv was only the face from the
eyebrows to the chin and about half of
the cheeks. We turned our backs to-
ward it as much as possible, and es-
perially after We had got into camp
and got to work building our snow
houses and digging through the thick
ice of the lake for fresh water, and so
lazily did our breath that CONCEALED
into miniature clouds float away to the
northward, Ike the little light C rrus
clouds of q summer sky. that we knew
well enough how terribly cold it must
be without looking at the thermometer
that stood at Il degrees below zero,
Fahrenheit.
1t is not so much the intensity of the
cold, expressed in degrees on the ther-
mometer, that determines the disagree
I IL
is the force and relative direction of
the wind [ have found it far pleas
anter with the thermometer at 80, 80,
or even 70 degrees below zero, Fahren-
heit, with little or no wind blowing at
the time, than to face rather stiff
breeze when the little tall-tale showed
50 degrees warmer temperature. Even
an arctic acclimated white man facing
good, strong wind, at 20 or % de-
grees below zero, is almost sure to find
the wind freeze the nose and cheeks,
and the thermometer does not have to
sink over or 5 degrees to induce the
Eskimos themselves to keep within
their snug snow houses under the same
circumstances, unless want or famine
demands ther presence IN the storm.
With plenty in the larder for all the
mouths, brute and human, none Of
them venture out in such weather.
Lieut.. SchrdthG.
As exchange gives an account of an
editor found dead in bathtub. This
is indeed remarkable place to find an
editor, dead or alive. How in the world
did the editor come to stray into such
an out-of-theway place and be III his
, right mind? There are several way s
F to account for this. He may have been
laboring under a temporary attack of
mental alteration when he strayed into
the tub, and recovering his senses be-
fore he had got ont of the place real
lied his terrible situation and was
frightened to death However. the
story is doubted on account Of the un-
usual and unreasonable position in
which it is claimed the editor was