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or with poles, push into the snow every foot or so, progressing forward 
as they doso. If ahuman body is touched, the elasticity will be noted; 
also, the poles pushed down around the body will sink deeper, for the 
entombed usually do not lie on the ground, but are imbedded in the 
snow. Accounts are given of men who have been imbedded for four- 
teen, nineteen, and twenty-four hours, and one case, in which a woman 
was found living after one hundred hours, is almost incredible. 
The work of rescue should, therefore, never be speedily abandoned. 
Death usually occurs either through bodily injuries or through sutfo- 
cation, mostly the latter. The more or less rapid effect of suffocation 
depends on the density of the snow and the position into which the body 
comes to lie. Naturally, if the head lies downward, and is packed into 
compact snow, death must occur sooner than when the body gets into 
an erect position with less snow pressing upon head and breast. 
If the face comes near a hollow space in the snow, and breathing is 
facilitated, the entombed can live in spite of the cold for a long time, 
and can be saved or even save himself; for the heat of the body thaws 
the snow gradually, around breast and abdomen first, around legs 
and arms more slowly, because these parts are more distant from the 
source of warmth. 
Irom this some rules. for the conduct of those who can not escape 
the slide may be inferred, namely, that they should try to preserve an 
erect position in the fall, and to keep the arms near the body, so that 
; the arms may sooner be released by thawing and become useful in the 
rescue. 
| When the slide comes to rest the entombed at first feels a pressure ; 
this is soon relieved, after a tew seconds, by the partial freezing of the 
snow masses and a consequent contraction. 
The entombed hear and understand any noise or voice above them, 
but their own voice can not be heard above; this probably because the 
sound waves can not sufficiently develop in strength in the surrounding 
snow. 
The treatment of the rescued depends of course on the circumstances 
of the case. Resuscitation is often possible, even if the rescued is ap- 
parently dead. In all cases the first duty of the rescuers, when they 
discover the body in the snow, is to provide means for breathing by 
opening up a channel! to the mouth. If the rescued is apparently dead 
respiration must first be restored. This is done by placing the body on 
the belly, supporting the front of the head lightly, pressing evenly and 
_ Slowly with flat hands upon the sides of the breast, rolling the body 
over on the side and a little further and back on its belly, repeating the 
pressure on the sides; this movement should be repeated sixteen to 
twenty times per minute. 
q Another mode is to place the body in sitting posture, supporting the 
_head, grasping from behind the two forearms in the middle and moving 
hem forward and upward, until they touch both sides of the head, then 
ht gS 
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