SINGULAR EFFECTS OF EXTREME COLD.

73

frost, is liable to split them; and the apartments are heated with stoves, which keep the temperature at a higher and more uniform rate that our English fire-places will.

And here it may be observed, that the result of intense cold (such as is felt in Canada) is, if not guarded against, similar to that of intense heat; with this exception that it is easier to guard against the effects of the one in N. America than the other in India. A cold iron during a Canadian winter, when tightly grasped, blisters and burns with nearly equal facility to a hot iron. The principle, in both instances, is alike—in the former the caloric or vital heat of the body passes so rapidly from the hand into the cold iron as to destroy the continuous and organic structure of the part; in the latter, the caloric passes so rapidly from the hot iron into the hand as to produce the same effect: heat, in both cases, being the cause; its passing into the body from the iron, or into the iron from the body, being equally injurious to vitality. From a similar cause the incautious traveller, in Canada, is burnt in the face by a very cold wind, with the same sensations as when exposed to the blast of an eastern sirocco.* The term frost-bitten is the effect produced by extreme cold, when accompanied by a sharp biting wind. At this period persons are liable to have the nose,

Milton thus alludes to the effects of cold in his description of the residence of Satan and his compeers: after adverting to Styx, he says— Beyond this flood, a frozen continent

66

Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms
Of whirlwind and dire hail, which, on firm land,
Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems
Of ancient pile; all else deep snow and ice,

A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog

Betwixt Damaita and Mount Cassius old,

Where armies whole have sunk: the parching air

Burns frore, (frozen) and cold performs the effect of fire."

We find also in Virgil Georg. I. 193—

PARADISE LOST, Book ii.

Boreæ penetrabili frigus adurat.

Dogs become mad at Quebec in December and January when the cold is greatest. Extreme cold and extreme heat being equally favourable to the propagation of hydrophobia.

74

FROST BITTEN.-DEATH FROM SNOW.

toes, fingers, ears, or those parts where the circulation of the blood is scanty and slow, frost-bitten, without their own feelings informing them of the presence of the enemy, and the knowledge of such being first discovered by a passing individual, who observes the nose (for instance, if frost-bitten) becoming quite white, while the rest of the face is very red. In such a predicament it is at first startling to see an utter stranger running up to a traveller with a handful of snow, calling out "your nose, sir; your nose is frost-bitten;" and, waving further ceremony, rubbing without mercy at your proboscis-it being the first time that any one had ever dared to tweak and twinge that honorary vulnerable part. If snow be well rubbed in, in due time, there is a probability of saving the most prominent feature in the face; if not, or if heat be applied, not only is the skin destroyed, but the nose, and a great part of the adjacent surface, is irrecoverably lost.

The long-continued action of snow or cold on the animal frame is inevitable death, and that of the most pleasing kind; at first a degree of languor is felt,-to this succeeds an irresistible drowsiness, which, if indulged in, is surely fatal-the sufferer passing, without motion or pain, from the slumber of life into the cold sleep of death, leaving the countenance as calm and placid as if the pulse of existence still vibrated through the frame, while voluntary muscular power was quiescent under the delightful enjoyment of sound repose. Those who feel the pleasurable moments which intervene between the state of consciousness and unconsciousness on approaching sleep,-when indistinct visions and indescribable emotions are experienced by the guileless, may readily conceive the exquisite mode in which the soporific influence of frost softens the iron grasp of the_grim_tyrant.* It must not, however, be supposed that the severity of the winter is any obstacle to out-door amusements, though it stops the navigation of the rivers and the cultivation of

It is probable that the death ensuing from inhaling the vapour of burning charcoal is somewhat similar in its absence from pain.

PLEASURES OF A CANADIAN WINTER.

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the soil; on the contrary, winter in Canada is the season of joy and pleasure the cares of business are laid aside, and all classes and ranks indulge in a general carnival, as some amends for the toil undergone during the summer months. The sleigh or carriole of the humble habitan, or proud seigneur, is got ready all over the country-riding abroad on business or pleasure commences-visiting is in active play between friends, neighbours, and relatives-regular city and town balls, and irregular pic-nic country parties (where each guest brings his dish),* are quite the rage; and, after dining, dancing, and supping-and dancing again, the wintry morning dawn is often ushered in while the festive glee is yet at its height, and a violent snow-storm blockades the picnickers, until broad daylight enables them to carriole towards home, over the ice-bound rivers and waves of snow, in all the enjoyment which the lightest hearted beings can be supposed capable of, and considering the hardships and inconveniencies of the moment as a zest to the more staid and fashionable routes of Quebec or Montreal.

Travelling over frozen rivers or lakes is, however, not unattended with real danger; the sleigh, its horses and passengers, being not unfrequently instantly engulphed, and sucked beneath the ice, there being no warning of the danger until the horses sink, dragging the carriole and its inmates after them. In general, it is fortunate, the weak or thin places are of no great extent; and when the horses are found to be sinking, the passengers instantly leap out on the strong ice, seize the ropes, which, with a running noose, are placed ready for such an emergency on every sleighhorse's neck, and, by sheer pulling, the animal is strangled in order to save his life! This is absolutely a fact. If the horse be allowed to kick and struggle, it only serves to * This Canadian custom reminds me of Goldsmith's lines, beginning, "When Scarron of old his companions invited,

Each guest brought his dish, and the feast was united;

If our landlord supply us with beef and with fish,

Let each guest bring himself-and he brings the best dish."

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MODE OF EXTRICATING A HORSE FROM THE ICE.

injure and sink him; as soon, however, as the noose is drawn tight his breathing is momentarily checked, strangulation takes place, the animal becomes motionless, rises to the surface, floats on one side, and is then drawn out on the strong ice, when the noose being loosened, respiration re-commences, and the horse is on his feet carrioling away again in a few minutes as well as ever. This singular and almost incredible operation has been known to be performed two or three times a day on the same horse; and the Americans say that like Irishmen, the animals are so used to being hanged that they think nothing about it. Often, however, horses, sleigh or carriole, and passengers, are in a moment sunk and swept beneath the ice. The traveller on the frozen rivers, but more especially on the frozen lakes, incurs also great danger from the large cracks or openings which run from one side of the lake to the other, from one to six feet broad, causing, at some distance from the crack, a shelving up of the ice to the height of several feet in proportion to the breadth of the fissure: the sleigh drivers, when they see no other chance of passing or of escape, make the horses endeavour to leap the chink at full gallop, with the sleigh behind them, at the imminent risk of being engulphed in the lake.

A snow-storm is another source of danger to the American traveller; and there is, indeed, something truly awful and terrific in a snow-storm on land as well as in a hurricane at sea, with the disadvantage attending the traveller on terra firma that he has no land-marks, instead of the mariner's compass, to guide him in his trackless path, while the intellects become rapidly bewildered, memory fails, and a road often travelled, and formerly well known, is utterly lost in the remembrance of the unfortunate traveller. While the heavy fall of snow is taking place, it is accompanied by a violent gale of wind, which drifts the light snow along with great velocity, forming in its progress innumerable eddies and turnings according to the inequalities of the surface, and raising as it were light clouds from the earth, which obscure and confuse every thing. This drift, which the Canadians call La Poudre, is a

DANGERS OF A SNOW STORM.-CANADIAN SONG.

fine sand like dust, of minute but intensely frozen particles
of snow, which, whirled by the impetuosity of the hurricane,
forces its way through the smallest window or door chink,
leaving large heaps of snow on the floor in a few hours,
as we sometimes experience to a small extent in England. I
cannot here forbear giving the following picturesque Canadian
song, by Mrs. Moodie, which, while it depicts all the danger
of the traveller over the snow, cheers us with the feelings
which welcome the parent and the husband at the cottage
door when the perils of the ice-bound flood are past:-
'Tis merry to hear at evening time,

By the blazing hearth, the sleigh-bell's chime;*
And to know each bound of the steed brings nigher
The friend for whom we have heaped the fire.
Light leap our hearts, while the listening hound
Springs forth to hail him with bark and bound.

'Tis he! and blithly the gay bells sound,
As his sleigh glides over the frozen ground;
Hark! he has passed the dark pine-wood,
And skims like a bird o'er the ice-bound flood;
Now he catches the gleam from the cabin door,
Which tells that his toilsome journey's o'er.

Our cabin is small, and coarse our cheer,
But Love has spread the banquet here;
And childhood springs to be caressed
By our well-beloved and welcome guest;
With a smiling brow his tale he tells,
While the urchins ring the merry sleigh-bells.

From the cedar-swamp the gaunt wolves howl,
From the hollow oak loud whoops the owl,
Scared by the crash of the falling tree;
But these sounds bring terror no more to me;

No longer I listen with boding fear,

The sleigh-bell's distant chime to hear.

The horses in the sleighs or carrioles have small bells hung on the harness, the sound of which is cheering to the animal as well as to his master: in a frosty night sound is rapidly and extensively conveyed to an anxious and listening ear, and the tinkle of the distant sleigh bell may well be thought musical.