TRAVEL. 67 



^infrequently the days after a snow-storm are bright and 

 beautiful. The sun shines with sufficient warmth to 

 slightly melt the top of the snow, which, when night 

 comes, freezes into a compact mass, the glare of which is 

 simply intolerable. There is nothing to relieve the eye- 

 no woods, no hills, nothing to look at but one broad 

 interminable sheet of blazing white. 



The ordinary plains antidote is to smear the face 

 around the eyes with grease and gunpowder ; but this, 

 as well as goggles, green veils, broad- brimmed hats, and 

 other devices, answering fairly in civilised regions, are all 

 at fault here. 



In common with many persons I am simply blind 

 under such circumstances, but suffer no other inconveni- 

 ence. Many others, however, suffer much more acutely. 

 The face, hands, and every exposed part, blister as if 

 burned by fire. I have known cases of serious illness, 

 the face swollen and extremely sensitive to the touch, 

 the eyes entirely closed, the nose a blister, the lips parched 

 and cracked. Many persons lose the entire skin of the 

 face after such an exposure, and suffer for weeks. After 

 having once been snow-blind, a person is much more 

 liable to subsequent attacks. 



There is said to be another plains malady, which, 

 however, I cannot vouch for. It is called ' moon-blind.' 

 The idea is that the full rays of the moon affect the 

 eyes of a man sleeping exposed to them so that he cannot 

 see at night. I have so slept very many times without ill 

 consequences, nor have I ever heard of it affecting a 

 really reliable and responsible man. The malady is 

 confined to ' bull- whackers ' or other employes of 

 freighters and soldiers, and among the latter I have never 

 known it to attack a really good man. 



Indeed, so far as my experience goes, either this malady 

 must have been devised as a special punishment to the 

 worthless, or suspicion must be entertained that it means 

 ' malingering.' 



