LONG WINTER'S NIGHT. 217 



the bottom, we had every day to melt two buckets 

 full of water for our horses. Then followed the 

 most tedious time of all, the long winter's night ! 

 One would have supposed that after the day's work 

 we should have passed it quietly and slept soundly ; 

 but this was far from being the case. Our fatigue 

 was of a more than ordinary kind, and we felt a 

 prostration of the whole system which seemed to 

 render sound sleep impossible. The dry rarefied air 

 produced a choking sensation like a heavy night- 

 mare, and our lips and mouths became parched. 

 Our beds consisted of pieces of dusty felt of a single 

 fold, laid on the frozen ground ; on these we lay for 

 ten consecutive hours, but unable to enjoy a really 

 good night's rest, and so to forget for a time the 

 hardships which encompassed us. 



The days devoted to sport passed more plea- 

 santly, but cold and wind often interfered with our 

 shooting excursions, and sometimes quite put a stop 

 to them. The wind blew every day, and even if not 

 always with the force of a gale it was always suffi- 

 cient to impede our movements ; for, to say nothing 

 of the cold, which obliged us to don ear-protectors, 

 warm gloves, and fur coats, to face the wind ^ would 

 fill our eyes with tears, thus seriously affecting the 

 rapidity and accuracy of our fire. Our hands, too, 

 became so benumbed that we had to rub them be- 

 fore placing a cartridge in the chamber of a breech- 

 loader, and the metal contracted so that we had to 



' When we were shooting we were always going against the wind 

 to prevent the game from scenting us. 



