350 
THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. 
C. — We have had some severe weather during this month, 
yet I have not felt nearly so much inconvenience from the 
intensity of the cold, as one would expect from the tempera- 
ture of the atmosphere. There seems to be something enli- 
vening and bracing in our air^ which prevents our becoming 
so much affected by it. 
F. — Our cold weather is generally clear and uniform, and 
our bodies become inured to its severity. After having spent 
many winters in Newfoundland and Canada^ I passed one 
in the State of Alabama. I had congratulated myself on the 
thought that now I should not know cold weather ; that 
after Canada^ the winter of Alabama could be nothing to me. 
But I found that slight frosts, and wet windy days, inter- 
rupted by warm ones, seemed to me almost as cold to the 
feelings as the severity of Canada. Before the winter was 
over, I sailed for England, and although the thermometer 
was on only one day as low as 36°, I felt the inconveniences 
of extreme severity, my feet becoming covered with the well- 
known annoyances called chilblains, and my whole frame 
shivering with cold : this was, no doubt, owing to the sud- 
den transition from a climate of 76° to that of 36°. — We 
here find the intensity of the cold as much manifested by colla- 
teral circumstances as by our bodily sensations. The creak- 
ing of the snow beneath our feet : the adhesiveness of door- 
latches, or any metal, to our hands, if there be the slightest 
moisture on them ; the clouds of steam which pour from our 
mouth and nostrils when we breathe ; the accumulation of 
frosted leaves on the windows of rooms in which great fires 
and close stoves are kept ; the fringe of ice round the edges 
of our pillows and blankets, from our breath having frozen 
while we slept ; the piercing pang felt by the lungs on sud- 
denly emerging from a warm room, and inhaling the cold 
air ; the pricking sensation in the cheeks ; the whitening of 
the whiskers, hair, and eyebrows ; the icicle at the nose ; 
