The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1910-03-12
GUARDED BY ICY WIND
A Frigid Convict Station In the
Northeast of Siberia.
THE COOLEST SPOT ON EARTH

No Precautions Are Necessary Against
Escape at vsrhoyansk-Whsn the
Wind Blows, Half an Hour In the
Fierce, Biting Cold Means Death.
The coolest place in the world one
would naturally expect to be either
the north or the south pole. but it is
not. 1t is a village in the northeast Of
Siberia named Verhoyansk.
There the average temperature Of
the three worst winter months is 53
degrees F. below zero. which means
the average temperature is Sc degrees
below zero; or IS degrees of frost On
one occasion the thermometer regis
tered the remarkable figure Of 40 de-
grees Of frost! The average January
figure for London, on the other hand,
is degrees above freezing point
But in Verhoyansk most months are
winter months. July, curiously enough,
is as hot there as in London, but the
shadow Of the terrible winter hangs
over even the warmest months.
Even in midsummer the forests
which surround the desolate plain in
the center of which Verhoyansk
stands are withered and gray. The
grass is colorless. The few flowers
are odorless. The bare soil Of the
plain itself refuses to produce vege-
tables of any kind. The ground is
frozen hard to an 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 convict sta
ton. and its population Of 400 is made
up of officials and 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. VerhOyansE,
strange though it sounds, is guarded
by the wind. A gale when the Their
mometer stands at 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 on a
damp day in November than during
his entire stay in VerhOyansk, where
the thermometer sometimes showed 80
degrees Of frost.
The reason is that at Verhoyansk
the air is intensely dry. and dry cold
does not penetrate far. With a tent
at night and warm furs in the day
time one can be quite comfortable
however low the temperature.
But let a 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 60 de-
grees Of frost, if a 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 SO dangerous, quite
as powerful in it's effects. In that icy
stiffness an iron ak head dropped or
the ground smashes 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 cube.
in a ne. attached to his sleigh. Hi.
thermometers all burst, for at the