The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-08-15

clothing made from reindeer skins, and it
certainly is the warmest and highest of
any in the world. doubt if the reindeer
suit which wore on the Sd of January, in
1873, weighed more than the average
weights of those worn today by the people
OF Puget sound. They look fluffy" large
and even cumbersome. but they are light
and supple and give genial warmth in
bitter cold weather which is indescribable
to person who has never worn them.
Only the face is exposed. and the nose and
cheeks soon get used to the many slight
freezings to which they are subjected and
which are very common occurrences.
When the freezings take place they pull
the warm hand from the reindeer mtten
and apply it to the spot until thawed out.
1t is very seldom they are severely frozen,
and do not now recall case have ever
seen or heard of. 1t is not near so fire.
quent as in our own climate. But the
amount of cold these denizens of that
dreary land can endure is almost beyond
conception. Yet believe that white men
living their mode of life, in the course of
few winters, will soon equal their extraor-
binary endurance. We were with them in
this manner for two winters and some of
my men were certainly their equal in
many respects. and undoubtedly far be-
yond the resisting power Of white men
housed in ships and buildings on the land.
In the igloo the temperature is always below
freezing, generally about 20 degrees, while
in ships and houses it is about 10 degrees,
a difference of standard temperature of 80
degrees. If the white man on shipboard
goes out into temperature of from 20 to
30 degrees it is nothing phenomenal at all,
yet he has changed by 100 degrees, while if
the acclimated white man living in an Es-
kimo igloo changes as much he finds him.
self in a temperature Of from 20 to so de-
grees below zero. and which everybody
heralds as phenomenal, while after all 1t is
only the same thing
l am not inclined to draw differences,
but even blind man could readily see
that there would be a great difference in
the probable results coming from two ex-
piorers on these different methods of con-
duct. ! have seen these hardened sons of
old Boreas play their polar picnics when
the mercury of the thermometer had
curled up in the bulb and gone into win
ter quarters. l have known the little
babies to play stark naked on the reindeer
skins Of the native bedding in their igloos
for hours at a time. while the grown peo-
pie always sit in these snow-houses with
their outer suit (they have two) removed
in their shirt sleeves. so to speak. have
seen Toolooah thrust his hand into frozen
seal oil or blubber of about the consistency
of icecream. when the skin would at once
turn white with the instant freezing, and
he would vince like man struck on the
''crazy-bone" with sharp stick, but he
would keep at it until the native stone
lamp was filled, when he would thaw out
his in his mouth, for he had mouth on
him like the mouth of the heavenly
Humptulips or the dream-like Docewal-
lups or the sparkling Hummahumma,
those beautiful Washington streams.
have heard of an Eskimo medicine
man, or angeko. as they call them, taking
reindeer hide ami soaking it until the
hair came out, when the skin. frozen as
stiff and rigid as piece of boiler-plate
iron, was put against his bare skin under
his reindeer coat, and not only held there
until it was thawed, but also until it was
dried; this to make drum head out Of
for their peculiar rites and ceremonies
Before l would do this I would go without
drum. although dearly love them. 1t
is frigid weather indeed when an Eskimo
drummer, or any other kind, for that mat
ter, gets overmatched by circumstances.
But this angeko belonged to a reindeer
eating race of inland Eskimo, the Kinne-
petOos,. who, killing no seal or walrus or
never visiting the coast, had no oil to
warm or light their snow-houses, which
We're cold and cherries in the ex.
treme. They eat nothing but frozen meat
in the winter, and l suppose pick
their teeth with an icicle afterwards. l
have three personal enemies whom l have
been trying tor ten years to induce to ex-
plore the X innepetoo country and take
their knitting along and remain over a
winter or two. Although l am a little
more grasping than the average, still do
not want all the UNEMPLOYED Arctic coun-
try 10 myself.
At II degrees below zero, or 103 degrees
below the freezing point, the sky looks
like sheet of lead and the unclouded sun
like a badly battered brass button. If the
wind blows even a zephyr it cuts the face
as a knife would. If one allows the beard
to grow it forms base for mass Of con-
gealed ice that builds up from the vapors
of the breath ut the rate of pound a min
ute. Shaving in such weather is out of
the question. unless one fathers with snow,
shaves with the sharp wind by the light
of the aurora borealis and applies Hudson
bay rum afterwards; then one is ready to
die. Dying is not so fashionable in the
Arctic now as formerly, however.
l have poured water on ice at this de-
gree of cold and it crackles and snaps like
q bunch of blazing firecrackers. The ice
may have been as clear as crystal but it
now turns to dull Opaque white, not I'M
like snow-ice floating Oh the water. NY
readers may remember hearing the keen.
ringing and not unmusical sound of the
iron-shod runners of the sleigh or cutter
flying over the frozen snow at home in the
East. Multiply this by ten, at
least, and you will have the ring
of the ice-clad runners of the
native sledge in the Arctic when the tenn
perature is among the COS and 7O's. One
can hear it for a mile or so, and if the ear
be held near the ground fully twice as far.
At a great distance il strongly reminds
one of the playing on a stringed instru-
ment far away, an Eolian harp or distant
guitar. From the far northern regions,
where they fed the COWS on kindling wood
and parlor matches to prevent their Civ
ing ice-cream, l moved to Arizona. where,
at Id degrees in the shade, they fed the
hens Clipped ice to prevent their laying
hard-boiled eggs. Yea, verify, it is a Gu
rious country. Take il all in all the phe-
nomenal cold endured in the Arctic re-
gions is easily explained to the acclimated
white man who has slowly accustomed
himself TO its rigors, and it presents less
wondrous factors to him than do the facts
| that so few are frozen to death in this
xUfs