In the snow. 



119 



longer^ he would have been a corpse, for the 

 thermometer was then standing at 13^ below the 

 freezing point; and this is the way in which 

 numbers of these poor fellows perish in the 

 Andes during the snow storms. When they 

 are tired, their courage very soon fails them, 

 and they will lay down till they get chilled ; a 

 kind of stupor and drowsiness then follows, 

 which is the sure forerunner of death in these 

 frozen regions. Precisely in the same manner 

 did the poor fellow perish, whose body we passed 

 yesterday; and so would this young man, had 

 not the two men been carrying three loads be- 

 tween them : thus proving to us the inscrutable 

 wisdom of Providence ; for had not one man dis- 

 located his ancle, the other would have lost his 

 life; and so easily does the king of terrors 

 come over them, that many have been found in 

 the snow in a sleeping attitude, with the head 

 reclining on the arm, just as they had died. 



We have many instances on record, of death 

 from cold, being preceded by drowsiness, which 



