Adventure and adventurers > Away in the wilderness, or, Life among the red Indians and fur-traders of North America

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AWAY IN THE WILDERNESS.
even lost their hands and feet by frost. Many
have lost their lives. But the most common loss
is the loss of the skin of the point of the nose,
cheek-bones, and chin—a loss which is indeed
painful, but can be replaced by nature in the course
of time.
Of course curious appearances are produced by
such intense cold. On going out into the open
air, the breath settles on the breast, whiskers, and
eyebrows in the shape of hoar-frost; and men who
go out in the morning for a ramble with black or
brown locks, return at night with what appears
to be grey hair ! sometimes with icicles hanging
about their faces. Horses and cattle there are
seldom without icicles hanging from their lips and
noses in winter.
Poor Mr. Pemberton was much troubled in this
way. He was a fat and heavy man, and apt to
perspire freely. When he went out to shoot in
winter, the moisture trickled down his face and
turned his whisker^ into two little blocks of ice ;
and he used to be often seen, after a hard day’s
walk, sitting for a long time beside the stove,
holding his cheeks to the fire, and gently coaxing
the icy blocks to let go their hold !
But for all this, the long winter of those regions
is a bright enjoyable season. The cold is not felt
so much as one would expect, because it is not
damp, and the weather is usually bright and sunny.