8 FORESTRY IN POLAND. 



to have turned back at least, as soon as a sensation of 

 faintness warned me that the circulation was being 

 seriously impeded but I did not wish to confess my 

 imprudence to the friend who accompanied me. When 

 we had driven about three-fourths of the way, we met a 

 peasant woman, who gesticulated violently, and shouted 

 something to us as we passed. I did not hear what she 

 said, but my friend turned to me and said in an alarming 

 tone we had been speaking German " Mein Gott ! Ihre 

 Nase ist abgefrohren 1" Now the word " aJgefrohren," as 

 the reader will understand, seemed to indicate that my 

 nose was frozen off, so I put up my hand in some alarm to 

 discover whether I had inadvertently lost the whole or 

 part of the member referred to. So far from being lost 

 or diminished in size, it was very much larger than usual, 

 and at the same time as hard and insensible as a bit of wood. 



' " You may still save it," said my companion, " if you 

 get out at once and rub it vigorously with snow." 



' I got out as directed, but was too faint to do anything 

 vigorously. My fur cloak flew open, the cold seemed to 

 grasp me in the region of the heart, and I fell insensible. 



' How long I remained unconscious I know not. When 

 I awoke I found myself in a strange room, surrounded by 

 dragoon officers in uniform, and the first words I heard 

 were, " He is out of danger now, but he will have a fever." 



' These words were spoken, as I afterwards discovered, 

 by a very competent surgeon ; but the prophecy was not 

 fulfilled. The promised fever never came. The only 

 bad consequences were that for some days my right hand 

 remained stiff, and during about a fortnight I had to 

 conceal my nose from public view. 



' If this little incident justifies me in drawing a general 

 conclusion, I should say that exposure to extreme cold is 

 an almost painless form of death, but that the process of 

 being resuscitated is very painful indeed so painful, that 

 the patient may be excused for momentarily regretting 

 that officious people prevented the temporary insensibi- 

 lity from becoming " the sleep that knows no waking." 



