338 FALLING INTO THE POLAR SEA. 



feel quite foolish " : we have many times known people 

 exposed to great cold to express themselves in these 

 very terms. 



As a rule we think we may safely say, that serious 

 cases of congelation are generally the result of some 

 neglect or imprudence, and strange to say, they seem 

 to be far more common upon the steppes and prairies 

 than they are in the arctic regions ; many of them we 

 fear are the results of drink : in other cases of course, 

 the victim has probably been suddenly overtaken 

 upon the high plains by a blizzard, without being 

 prepared for it, and in such cases people may often 

 be literally frozen to death within a very short distance 

 of their own homes. Sailors belonging to whaling 

 ships also, are sometimes upset into the water, during 

 the arctic summer, when the sea is very little above 

 its freezing point, and on being taken out, the air 

 being much colder than the water, become quickly 

 coated with ice, and frozen. Respecting this latter 

 accident Dr. Laing, surgeon on board the ship of the 

 celebrated arctic navigator Captain Scoresby, makes 

 the following observations: 



" It is almost needless to remark (he says) that in this 

 inclement region, swimming is of little or no use to any 

 person who may chance to fall overboard, as his muscular 

 motion is almost instantaneously obstructed by cold." * 



This we may observe is almost always the case in 

 very cold water. Unless the person gets out almost 

 immediately, he soon becomes benumbed and perishes. 

 In this instance a sailor had been upset out of a boat 

 by a whale, and had been brought on board covered 



* A Voyage to Sjpitzbergen, by John Laing, surgeon ; 2nd Edition, 1 8 1 ' , 

 pp. 113/114. 





