IN DAKOTA, 81. 
just swept past us—and yet plenty of it did reach 
the earth in drifts. Sometimes it would let up a lit- 
tle, and then, as if to make up for lost time, com- 
mence again with renewed fury. And that’s about 
what a blizzard is.” 
“ And how long does it continue?” he asked. 
‘‘ From two hours to two days. The one [ have de- 
scribed lasted about a day and a half.” 
‘Were any lives lost?” 3 
“No; people can judge pretty well from the char- 
acter of the wind and the appearance of the clouds, 
whether there is going to be a blizzard, and so they 
get their stock into shelter, and themselves also. Of 
course if a man should he caught out on the prairie 
in such a storm he would have a hard time of it, and 
some years ago, when houses were far apart, some 
lives were lost, but I have never heard of any since . 
have lived in Dakota.” 
“ And you've had only one blizzard since you lived 
there ?” he inquired. ‘ Why some people think you’ 
_have two or three every winter.” 
‘‘T am giving you my own experience,” I said. 
**Of course we have some celd weather there when 
the mercury gets down to twenty or thirty degrees 
below zero, but this don’t. last very long, and while 
it continues the air is so dry and still that you don’t 
feel it as much as you do here when the mercury isa 
good deal higher. I never knew a high wind to blow 
there while hie cold w eather lasted, 
6 
