EFFECTS OF DRAUGHTS IN INTENSE COLD. 341 



as the least breath of air would make such a cold 

 almost unbearable. Baron Nordenskiold, the well-known 

 Swedish explorer, for example, tells us: 



" In calm weather a cold of 40 F. is scarcely very trou- 

 blesome; but with only a slight draught, and a cold of 35 

 it is actually dangerous to expose uncovered parts of the face, 

 hands, or wrists, to the cold current, as without one's being 

 warned by any severe pains, frost-bite arises." * 



" Experience (Sir George Nares remarks) teaches us in 

 these regions never to run during severe weather, for although 

 the weather may be perfectly calm, the fast journeying through 

 the air, at a temperature below minus 50, has the same 

 effect as if a light breeze were blowing." f 



On one occasion with a temperature of about minus 

 480, on a calm day, a party from the Alert happened 

 to be out when a slight air began to blow for about 

 ten minutes, and Sir George Nares says of it : "With 

 so low a temperature, the sensation of stinging cold 

 in the exposed part of our faces, was intensely painful. " 



These facts are sufficient to show the great risks which 

 are incurred in facing a wind while a very low tempera- 

 ture prevails, and explain how it is that we so often 

 hear of people being actually frozen to death in bliz- 

 zards, close to their own homes. In Canada, during 

 severe winters, in the same way little inconvenience 

 is felt by anyone in a still atmosphere, no matter what 

 the amount of cold may be ; and this season is often 

 the merriest and gayest of the whole year, people all 

 going about in sledging parties, and to other forms 



* Voyage of the Vega, by A. E. Nordenskiold, translated by Alexander 

 Leslie, 1881, p. 474. 



j- Narrative of a Voyage to the Polar Sea, by Captain Sir Geo. S. 

 Nares, R.N., 1878, Vol. i, p. 249. 



Ibid., Vol. i., p. 239. 



