A SNOW BED.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XI, Issue 607, 21 May 1881, Page 3

A SNOW BED.

We are tolerably well used to snow in this district, but probably there are ' many who are quite unaware what thej should do if they were lost in the snow, as many persons have been. The following extract from a work by the E.ev. J. S. Woods, which was published in a Home paper last winterj when many people lost their lives in the snow, will prove interesting : ""We are told by experienced travellers in northern climes that nobody need be frozen to death in the snow. They look upon such a misfortune with a species of contemptuous piLy, compassionating the victim of cold for his sufferings, but despising him.for his .ignorance. The aboriginal Australian cannot comprehend how a white man can be so foolish as to die of thirst while there are so many waterbearing vegetables around him; the aboriginal American is at a loss to understand how a European can perish of hunger while in-the midst of plenty, and those who have passed much of their, lives amid the snow can hardly conceive an act of such supreme folly as to be frozen to dealh while the means of warmth are at hand. There is no need of a constitution especially organised or sedulously acclimatised to the snow ; the benighted traveller who loses himself in the white expanse, with the heavy flakes falling thickly around him, need not possess the hardihood of the Highland " reiver," who cares for no covering save his plaid, and looks upon a snow pillow

as an rfTtminafe luxury, He who finds himself in suc-h a i position, and knows how to avail himself of the means around him, will welcome, every flake that falls and instead of looking upon the snow as an ere'roy whose white arms are ready to inclose him in a fatal embrace, he hai 1 s the soft masses as a means of affording him warmth and .safety. Choosing soin e spot where the snow Jies deepest such as the side of a bank, or a tree, or a large, stone, he scoops, out with his hands a hollow in which he can lie, and wherein he is sheltered from the freezing blasts that scud over the land. "Wrapping himself in his garments, he burrows his' way as de epl y as he can.Jand then lies Quietly, allowing the snow to fall upon him unheeded. The extemporised cell in which he reclines socn begins to show its virtues. The substance in which it is hollowed is a very impe rfect conductor of heat, so that the traveller finds that the caloric exhaled from his body is no longer'swept off bv the wind, but is .conserved around him, and restores warmth and sensation to his limbs. The hollow enlarges slightly'as the body becomes warm, and allows its temporary! inhabitant to sink deeper into the snow, while the fast falling flakes rapidly cover and obliterate the traces'of his presence. There is no fear that he. should be stifled for want of air for the warmth of his breath always keeps a small passage open, and the snow, instead of becoming a thick uniform sheet of wh te substance, is broken by a little hole round ~which is collected a mass of glitteringjihoar frost caused by the congelation of the breath. There is no fear now of perishing by frost, for the show cell is rather too hot than too cold, and the traveller can sleep as warmlyj if not as composedly, as in his bed at home The reader may possibly rcrnemjjer that even in the British islands the. snow bed is almost annually brought into requisition. , The use of snow as a warm mantle to protect the young crops is familiar to us all.i Some of us have seen, and we have nearly all read, of the wonderful scenes that take place among the Scottish mountains, where, the'gsnowdrifts are heaped like white hills by the wayward tempest, taking all kinds of fantastic forms, and scooped into bays, and precipieces, and craggy with outlines as bold and sharp as if cue in unyielding granite.. After such storms as raise these strange mockeries of rugged landscape, whole flocks of sheep are missing, and must be sought by the shepherd and his faithful dog. Left to himself, the shepherd would scarcely dis- ■ single sheep, and in all probably would find himself in the very- predicament from ' which he seeks to rescue his woolly -'charge.. Were.it not for the fine instincts of tlie quadruped, many a ' flock would be lost, for the dog sniffs and runs about, and raises his nose in the air as tne well known, odour salutes his nostrils, and finally dashes forward and comes to a standstill over a little hole in the snow around which.is gathered a slight incrustation of hoar frost. This is a su*e indication that the sheep are below and still living, and then the shepherd breaks i through the roof of the snowy cell with i his pole, and rescues the starving animals from.their perilous positions. The sheep I which' are thus preserved from the effects | of the cold do not voluntarily burrow I into the ' snow. Striving to avoid the | chilling blasts ,of.the wind, they crowd towards any object which may shelter them from the cruel tempest, and while huddled- together" the snow-drifts are heaped around them, and cover them effectually. Under such circumstances they often die of starvation if they are left for too long a period, after having nibbled all the wool from each other's backs." . . ~'