Accidents > Awful phenomena of nature -- snow storms, third of March and twenty-third April, 1827

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fur. The officers ami soldiers, overtaken with
death-like numbness, with arms folded, and
countenances fixed, followed each other. The
guards fared no better than the rest. Covered
with rags, and dying with hunger, and without
arms, all resistance was impossible. The cry
of “ Cossack” put whole columns in consterna¬
tion ;—their line of march was strewed with
bodies ;—each bivouac resembled next day a
field of battle. No sooner had one fallen from
fatigue and cold, than he was stripped by his
I comrades to cover themselves with his clothes.
II Ail the houses and barns were set on fire, and
ij every burnt space was covered with the bodies
l;of those, who, having approached, and being
unable to retire when the flames reached them,
w’ere consumed. The roads were strewed wdth
iprisoners unable to proceed. To such horrors
ij succeeded others, if possible, still more dreadful.
1 Pale and disfigured by the smoke, they wer<^
iiseen ranged round the fire like spectres, sitting
non the dead bodies of their comrades, until, like
fthem, they fell and expired. The feet of num-
'jbers, by being exposed to the Cold, were gan¬
grened, and reduced to a state of perfect imbecility
*—they with difficulty walked ; others had lost ’
their speech. Some, from excess of cold and
mnger, wrere siezed with madness, and roasted
md eat the flesh of their dead comrades, or
gnawed their own hands and arms. In this
tate of frenzy, many rushed into the flames and
erished, uttering the most dreadful cries. In
r.e, it is impossible for any one, who has not