THE SNOWSTORM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2840, 19 August 1908, Page 17

THE SNOWSTORM.

BACK-COUNTRY EXPERIENCES.

(Fbom Ova Owk Cobrespondejtt ) OAMARU, August 15. A conversation with a resident of the Upper Wai+aki district confirms tho impression that sheep -owners' losses there are going to be considerable. For 6even days, 'he says, there has not been any thaw, and the frozen enow lies where it did. Sheep •which were liberated by the thaw shortly after the first fall are now suffering from the continuous frosfe and the shortage of feed. In some places the snow is frozen 6o hard that the shepherds ride across country without a eight of the fences, and in such places sheep are sometimes found by the dogs, though the shepherds may have passed two or -three times before. This is -particularly the case at the upper end of the Hajtataramea Valley and on the saddles overlooking the Kyeburn, while beyond Omarama the losses may be even heavier, for the frost has been even more severe. At the present time the cheep that are under the enow are even better off than those that have got out on to the faces. This resident tells me that the frost has hardly been co severe as in 1903, but it has been more continuous. Everything is now frozen hard, including meat, butter, and milk, and water has to be carted or melted. Hoggets and old sheep will suffer most. One resident of the Mackenzie Country remarked that he had been there 40 years, but compared with this he had never seen snow before.