EXPLORATIONS AMONG THE WHITE MOUNTAINS. Ill 



40. We have the stoves at a red heat. Ten feet from the stove, at the floor to-day, 

 the temperature was only 12, and at the same time was 65 in other parts of the 

 room. . . . Find that I froze my fingers while sawing off a piece of pork for our 

 &quot; Sunday baked-beans ; &quot; was out only five minutes. It was like cutting into a block of 

 gypsum, to saw off that piece of pork. 



Midnight. Really, there is quite a breeze just now. Some of the gusts, from what 

 we know of the measured force, must be fully up to one hundred miles per hour. In 

 fact, it is a first-class hurricane. The wind is north-west, and, as the house is fully 

 broadside to it, the full force is felt. At times, it seems as though everything was going 

 to wreck. We go to the door and look out : it is the most we can do. To step 

 beyond, with nothing for a holdfast, one would take passage on the wings of the wind 

 in the direction of Tuckerman s ravine. We shout across the room to be heard. Now 

 the wind suddenly lulls, and, moaning and sighing, it dies away. Then, quickly gath 

 ering strength, it blows as if it would hurl the house from the summit. The timbers 

 creak and groan, and the windows rattle. The walls bend inward, and, as the wind 

 lets go its hold, rebound with a jerk that starts the joints again. The noise is like 

 rifle-firing in fifty different directions at the same moment in the room a moment 

 ago, close by me as I sat here leaning against the wall, now in the outer room, or up 

 aloft, and outside as well. Then there is the trembling and groaning of the whole 

 building, which is constant. Everything movable is on the move. Books drop from 

 the shelves. We pick them up and replace them, only to do it again and again. We 

 have just looked at the thermometer ; find the temperature lower than at last observa 

 tion, now minus 40. Huntington and Smith are taking hourly observations. When 

 we hear an unusually loud report in the outer room, one goes to inspect. Nothing has 

 given away yet. 



February 5. From I to 2 A. M., the wind was higher than during the early part of the 

 night. Some of the gusts must have been above 100 possibly no. The tempest 

 roared and thundered. It had precisely the sound of the ocean waves breaking on a 

 rocky shore. And the building, too, had the motion of a ship scudding before a gale. 

 At 3 A.M. the temperature had fallen to 59,* and the barometer stood at 22.810; 

 attached barometer, 62. Barometer was lowest yesterday at 8 A.M., when it was 

 22.508, and attached thermometer, 32. 



9 A. M. Talked over the events of the past night at the breakfast table, recalling 

 many laughable incidents, and agreeing that we rather enjoyed the night s experience 

 than otherwise ; that it was a sublime affair (having full confidence that the house 

 would stand, the storm had no terror for us) ; but all things considered, were unani 

 mous in the opinion that once in a fortnight was quite often enough for such grand 

 displays of the storm-king s power. Of all the nights since this party came here, the 

 last exceeds every one. 



* The Signal Service did not provide us with a spirit thermometer; consequently it is impossible to say how 

 cold it was at this time, the instrument in use not being reliable below 38. C. H. H. 



