418 THE GERMAN ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



numbed, a painful straining of the forehead sets in, or a 

 violent pricking of tlie nostrils, wliicli are exposed to the 

 wind. Sometimes one stands in danger of the heels, the 

 toes, or the hands being frost-bitten. The hair of the 

 face, and even the eyelashes, get hoar with' frost — 

 indeed, the eyes are often completely closed — and every 

 frozen spot on the body must at once be rubbed with 

 lumps of snow resembling pumice-stone, until a warm, 

 pricking glow succeeds. When, as in the case of many 

 of our party, the frozen hands or feet were not rubbed 

 with snow until too late, it led to numerous blisters. 

 The fingers swelled up into lumps, and became quite 

 numbed ; but the noses (the whole eight of which were 

 frozen) were more fortunate ; they emerged from a white 

 into a red stage of enlarged dimensions, were eventually 

 covered with aparchment-like skin,remainingfor some time 

 most sensitive, and by slow degrees regained their normal 

 condition, so that by the time we landed in Europe they 

 were all right again. The heat of our bodies, which we 

 did our best to retain by warm woollen clothes, was 

 carried away in a moment by the slightest wind ; and if it 

 increased, the cold crept between every button of our seal- 

 skin clothing ; the penetrating icy wind was felt at every 

 stitch, the arms hung down like lead, deadly cold, and no 

 one dared to walk without a mask. If the wind rose 

 still more, curtains of penetrating snow-crystals rose 

 with it from the ground ; then a snow-storm, which 

 always comes from the north, might be expected, 

 announcing itself by a lofty white appearance in the 

 south, the violet colour and close proximity of the moun- 

 tains, and low-hanging clouds. But still we risk the 

 march forward against the thickening snow, until painful 



