SUNBURN COMBINED WITH FROST-BITE. 269 



These extreme cases, we need hardly say, are generally 

 the result of imprudence, and are caused by the refraction 

 of the sun's rays, probably accompanied by an icy wind, 

 Alpine travellers, and others ascending- high mountains,, 

 are often great sufferers from similar causes, the cli- 

 mate at these great altitudes, as we have already had oc- 

 casion to remark, closely resembling that of the arctic 

 regions. * 



We are inclined to think that the very severe nature 

 of the blisters in some of these cases indicates a com- 

 bination of sunburn and frost-bite. It must be remem- 

 bered that intensely bright suns and snow-glaze have 

 nothing to say to the actual temperature of the atmo- 

 sphere. Some of these extraordinarily bright days are 

 frequently of remarkably low temperature, and the air 

 may all the while be 30 or 40 degrees below zero, if 

 there is no wind, and this in regions considerably to 

 the south of the arctic circle. The descent of the 

 great cold of the Polar regions into temperate lands 

 in the centre of great continents is a well known phe- 

 nomenon which occurs periodically in both hemi- 

 spheres, but especially in the northern, where the area of 

 the great plains is so enormous ; and when these very 

 low temperatures are accompanied by an icy gale, as- 

 we have pointed out in our remarks on " Blizzards " 

 and " Northers, " they become inflictions of a most 

 serious and dangerous character, a very small degree 

 of wind with a very low temperature being often sufficient 

 to render travelling impossible, and even a very short 

 exposure dangerous. Travellers in the arctic regions 

 and other sections of country liable to these invasions, 



* Mountaineering, by C. T. Dent, 1892, pp. 81, 82. (Badminton 

 Library). 



