Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1910-08-04
GUARDED BY ICY WIND.
Ia Frigid Convict Station In the
Northeast Of Siberia.
THE COOLEST SPOT ON EARTH

THE COOLEST SPOT ON EARTH
No Precautions Are Necessary Against
Escape At verhoyansk-Whsn the
Wind Blows. Halt an Hour In the
Fierce, Biting Cold Means Death.
The coolest place III the world one
would naturally expect to be either
the north Or the south pole. but 1t liz
not. 1t is village in the northeas, ut
Siberia named Verhoyansk.
There the average temperature Of
the three worst winter months il T.;
degrees r. below zero. which means
s. degrees of frost During january
the average temperature is 56 degrees
below zero. or So degrees of frost. On
obs occasion the thermometer rt.Sis.
cared the remarkable figure .,f l2O dt.
grees of frost. THE average January
figure for London. on tile other hand,
is degrees above freezing point.
Hut in verhcyansk most mouths arc
winter months. July. curiously enough.
is as hot there as in London. but the
shadow of the terrible winter hangs
over even the warmest mouths.
Even in midsummer the forests
which surround the desolate plain III
the center of which verhoyausk
stands are withered and gray. The
grass is coloriess. The few lowers
are odorless. The bare soil of the
plain itself refuses to produce vege-
tables of amy kind. The ground is
frozen hard to nn incredible depth.
No farming. of course. Is possible.
There are no cattle or poultry All
food is imported Why. then. does this
little village exist? 1t is u convict sta
tion. and its population of 400 is made
up of officials aud exiles.
No precautions against escapes are
needed. Prisoners are known to have
gone mad with the loneliness of the
place. But no one has ever been mad
enough to try TO escape Verhoyansk.
strange though 1t sounds. is guarded
by the wind A gale when the Their
mometer stands ut 80 or more below
zero will destroy every living thing
that is not under shelter.
One Of the many curious facts about
cold is that intense cold is in itself
easy to bear provided the air is still.
One traveller has declared that he has
often felt colder in Piccadilly GU II
L n <1tt I'm oGnc tl,,,t
his entire stay In verhoyansk. where
the thermometer sometimes showed no
degrees of frost.
The reason is that at verhoyansk
the air is Intensely dry. and dry cold
does not penetrate far. With tent
at night and warm furs in the day.
time one can be quite comfortable,
however low the temperature.
But let wind once rise and things
are different. AS. verhoyansk is the
coolest place in the world. the few
winds that come must bring warmth.
But then all winds carry moisture.
And SO we have the curious fact that.
though one may be quite comfortable
with the thermometer showing % de-
grces of frost. If IL wind springs up
and adds 20 or 80 degrees of warmth
to the air one has to fly for dear
life to shelter.
Half an hour in that fierce. biting
cold means death. But the intense
dry cold that is verhoyansk's normal
weather is. If not 50 dangerous. quite
us powerful in Its effects. In that icy
stiffness an iron ax head dropped on
the ground snllshes like glass. A
board of unseasoned wood. on the
other hand. freezes hard as iron.
De Windt in his travels in this re-
gion carried his milk in solid cubes
in IL net attached to his sleigh. His
thermometers all burst. for ut the
Verhoyansk temperatures quicksilver
freezes and can be hammered like
copper. 1t has indeed been turned into
bullets and shot through IL deal b0nrd.
| All he could find Of case Of taret
were few Jumps of red Ice and some
splintered glass. But what troubled
him most was the discovery that 1t
was impossible to smoke. At ~ de-
grees below zero frozen nicotine blocks
the stem of the pipe. while cigarettes
or cigars freeze to the lips.
1t must be embarrassing to find. as
one does when the thermometer reach
es so below. that ones very breath
falls ut ones feet in fine white pow.
der. A mustaches becomes torture
heavy. solid lump OF ice. 10 lay Il
bare hand on metal means that tile
skin will stay where 1t touches. A
careless traveller once witlessly left u
shirt outside his hut to dry. When he
picked it up again 1t bent and almost
broke. When swung through the air
1t made noise like theatrical thun-
der.
At these temperatures many usually
trusty articles. such rs combs aud
razors and knife handles. shrivel or
bend or break.
Verhoyansk is huddle Of mud plas-
tered huts along one struggling street.
The windows are of ice. so that can
dies are needed both summer and will
ter Twenty miles away. across dis
NAL plain of snow. lies a low. black
line of pine forests.
On the other side is the frozen river.
from which dense. unhealthy mlsts
roll up for weeks together in the all.
tnmn. There are rot flowers In spring.
and summer is dlngy. Perhaps they
are right ut Verhoyansk In looking
forward to the long months of winter.
But it is not cheerful place.-l'ear-
sons Weekly.