SLEIGHS AND SNOW-BANKS. 199 



latter it would be almost impossible to walk, partly because the snow, 

 where there is no householder to remove it, is several inches deep. 

 Moreover, when the snow-carts cannot immediately follow the 

 ploughs, and you have to cross the street, you will have to charge the 

 snow-wall which is thrown up by the plough. Many persons wear 

 boots like those already mentioned, and draw them over the trousers. 

 Nothing but " rubbers " seem to hold the ice which gathers on the 

 pavements. Even with them it is necessary to watch every step. 

 As to horses, the poor beasts are tumbling down in all directions. As 

 to humanity, even the arctics fail when ice forms on glass or iron 

 slabs, and the boys have made slides on it. Yesterday, when return- 

 ing from arranging the platform at the Cooper Institute, I found 

 my feet slipping away from all control. Long experience of ice had 

 taught me not to resist, and accordingly I sat down as gracefully as 

 circumstances would permit. It was quite dark, and the "total 

 depravity of inanimate objects " had put a glass slab plus ice j)lus 

 slide in my way. 



Another horse killed this afternoon. All yesterday the rain fell 

 in torrents and produced a most curious effect. A dense white 

 cloud rose from the snow, just as if hot water had been poured on it. 

 Last night a short but fierce gale arose, followed by sharp frost. 

 Consequently, the snow which had not been removed was first partly 

 melted, and then froze, so as to make an uneven and slippery, surface. 

 . . . The way in which the sleighs charge the snow-banks is a 

 caution. They go at them as fast as the horses can gallop. The 

 sleigh is pivoted to the shafts in rather a curious manner, which 

 allows of considerable up-and-down play, so that it shoots up one 

 side of the bank and down the other without injury. It is rather 

 startling to the novice, and makes him think that he is going up one 

 side of a gable roof and down the other ; at least, it had that effect 

 on me. 



One effect of the dry cold is very remarkable. Here the barbers 

 cut hair just as if their customers were convicts. Consequently, my 

 hair looked much like a tight sealskin cap. It has now grown a 

 little, and during the damp weather was perfectly manageable. But 

 this cold dry wind has an electrical effect upon the hair, so that it 

 sticks up like hedgehog's quills. Every now and then I pass a wet 

 comb through it, but the effect is not lasting. 



