CANADIAN BLIZZARDS. 185 



to windward. A roaring fire of pine logs is then set 

 going and the party sleep around it, wrapped in furs, 

 without suffering in any way. 



When a stormy wind accompanies the snow however 

 the circumstances become very different to those which 

 we have just sketched. These icy gales are sometimes 

 of the most serious and dangerous nature, and are 

 commonly known under the name of blizzards, 

 remarkable instances of which have been already 

 recorded in our chapter on "Climates and Tempera- 

 tures." The searching nature of the cold is then very 

 intense, and the whole atmosphere becomes so full of 

 driving snow dust that it is impossible to see a yard 

 in any direction, while the snow-wreaths quickly form 

 into banks or drifts, which fill every hollow spot in 

 a few minutes to depths which would take a man 

 overhead. These drifts also form at unexpected spots 

 wherever eddies of wind occur, forming such barriers 

 across roadways and railways, as to completely paralyze 

 traffic throughout the country, for the time being. 



In Canada, and other severe northern climates, travel- 

 ling at such times becomes exceedingly dangerous, 

 and many unfortunate persons thus get lost every 

 winter. When overtaken by one of these storms they 

 are unable to see their way, and wander off the path into 

 the driving snow, and so become engulfed in drifts and 

 frozen to death. Large numbers of sheep and other stock 

 are annually lost in a similar way, but instances have 

 been known of animals buried in snow drifts surviving 

 and escaping after long imprisonments, as enough air 

 penetrates through snow to admit of breathing freely. 



After a moderate snow-fall, when it is not too 

 deep to interfere with travelling, of course the trail of 



