268 SNOW BLINDNESS. 



quote further evidence on the subject. The affection 

 of the eyes known as " snow-blindness" is however most 

 common in spring; for as the sun begins to acquire 

 power and gets bright, it thaws the upper crust of the 

 snow fields, while the frosts which follow by night convert 

 it into a glassy surface, covered with a film of ice of such 

 dazzling brightness that it quickly produces a species 

 of acute inflammation of the eyes of a very serious nature, 

 one of the peculiar effects of which is to render the 

 sufferer peculiarly liable to a return of it, when sub- 

 sequently exposed to the same influences. Indeed the 

 intolerable glare from this highly glazed surface is 

 often so strongly refracted as to scorch the face and 

 hands and all exposed surfaces as if burned by fire, some- 

 times producing swelling and blisters of a very extensive 

 character. These affections are well known to every 

 plainsman and trapper upon the American prairies, many 

 of whom suffer severely from them, perhaps even more 

 so than in the very far North itself. 



Colonel Dodge, an officer of very great experience, 

 whose opinions we have frequently had occasion to 

 refer to, in his " Hunting Grounds of the Great West" 

 states in allusion to this subject that 

 "the most ordinary antidote is to smear the face around 

 the eyes with grease and gunpowder, but this as well as 

 goggles, green veils, and broad-brimmed hats, are all at fault. 

 Many persons suffer very acutely, and exposed parts blister 

 as if burned by fire. I have known cases of serious illness, 

 the face swollen, and extremely sensitive to the touch, the 

 eyes entirely closed, the nose a blister, the lips parched and 

 cracked. Many persons lose the entire skin of the face, after 

 such an exposure, and suffer for weeks." * 



* The Hunting Grounds of The Great West, by Col. Richard J. Dodge, 

 U.S.A., 1877, pp. 66, 67. 



