1 78 WINTER HUNTING IX GREAT FORESTS. 



and with good fur rugs, to use at night, no one need 

 fear the coldest weather. 



The atmosphere at these times is so exceedingly dry 

 and still, that the cold is not felt so much as it is in 

 damp climates, where the air is generally saturated with 

 moisture; and as we have pointed out in our arctic 

 section, the therapeutic effects of dry cold are often 

 highly beneficial to people with delicate chests; also 

 the death-rate of Europeans serving in the arctic regions 

 exposed to all the intensity of the polar cold, has been 

 proved to be actually lower than in any other part of 

 the world. Nevertheless we do not of course presume 

 to suggest that it would be prudent for persons in 

 delicate health, as a rule, to trust themselves far out in 

 the woods, away from shelter and medical assistance, 

 although notable cases have come under our own ob- 

 servation, where sickly and delicate men have dated 

 the commencement of their recovery to sound health 

 from the time when they first breathed the fresh air 

 and balsamic pine incense of the great forests of North 

 Western America. If however the weather should turn 

 from dry cold, to rain and cold stormy winds, as it 

 occasionally does, a man who is not in fair health 

 would hardly be warranted in exposing himself to the 

 discomfort and hardship which such an eventuality 

 would entail, should he be overtaken by it, in regions 

 beyond the shelter of human habitations. Still it is 

 common for men to pass months encamped in the woods, 

 and on the plains, exposed to all the vicissitudes of 

 weather and climate, without ever catching cold or hav- 

 ing a day's illness. In fact we have done this ourselves, 

 and strange to say our first return to civilization and 

 to a comfortable hotel, was marked by the onset of a 



