THIC WIIlTJi BEAR. 37 



hardly conceive an act of such supreme folly as to be frozen to 

 death while the means of warmth are at hand. 



There is no need of a constitution especially organized or 

 sedulously acclimatized to the snow ; the benighted traveller 

 who loses himself in the white expanse, with the heavy flakes 

 falling thickly round him, need not possess the hardihood of the 

 highland " reiver," who cares for no covering save his plaid, and 

 looks upon a snow-pillow as an effeminate luxury. He who 

 finds himself in such a position, and knows how to avail himself 

 of the means around him, will welcome every flake that falls, 

 and instead of looking upon the snow as an enemy whose white 

 arms are ready to enclose him in a fatal embrace, he hails the 

 soft masses as a means of affording him warmth and safely. 



Choosing some spot where the snow lies deepest, such as the 

 side of a bank or a tree, or a large stone, he scoops out with his 

 hands a hollow in which he can lie, and wherein he is sheltered 

 from the freezing blasts that scud over the land. Wrapping 

 liimself in his garments, he burrows his way as deeply as he 

 can, and then lies quietly, allowing the snow to fall upon him 

 unheeded. The extemporised cell in which he reclines soon 

 begins to show its virtues. The substance in which it is hol- 

 lowed is a very imperfect conductor of heat, so that the traveller 

 finds that the caloric exhaled from his body is no longer swept 

 off by the wind, but is conserved around him, and restores 

 warmth and sensation to his limbs. The hollow enlarges slightly 

 as the body becomes warm, and allows its temporarj' inhabitant 

 to sink deeper into the snow, while the fast falling flakes 

 rapidly cover him, and obliterate the traces of his presence. 



There is no fear that he should be stifled for want of air, for 

 the warmth of his breath always keeps a small passage open, 

 and the snow, instead of becoming a thick uniform sheet of 

 white substance, is broken by a little hole round which is col- 

 lected a mass of glittering hoarfrost, caused by the congelation 

 of the breath. There is no fear now of perishing by frost, for 

 the snow-cell is rather too hot thin too cold, and the traveller 

 can sleep as warmly, if not as composedly, as in his bed at 

 home. 



The reader may possibly remember that, even in the British 

 Islands, the snow-bed is almost annually brought into requi- 

 sition. 



