Show ENDURANCE OF THE ESQUIMAUX Wonderful Stories by lieutenant 3cuvntcu of Their Power to iitIstnnd Cold The amount of cold these northern nomads can endure however borders on the phenomenal I have seen the little babies two and three years old play perfect naked for hours at a time on I the reindeer robes of the bed in the igloo the temperature as I have said being constantly below freezing and in the Fall I I have seen them naked playing and I splashing in a pond of water long needles need-les of ice forming on the quiet places Ion I-on < e saw an Esquimaux baby boy taken from its mothers hdbd and naked made to stand on the snow until she found its I reindeer skin clothing from the sledge a I fairly strong wind sufficient to drift the loose snow along with it blowing J at the time the thermometer minus 38 degrees the only protection it had being behind a sledge loaded about three feet high around and over which the wind poured Its exposure thus was a good minute and to appreciate this one I must take a watch in his hand andsee that length of time drag by a time that a I not unconscious but sensational writer I might readily jot down as five or ten minutes And I have known a naked man surprised asleep in his igloo by a polar bear hastily grasp a gun and pursue pur-sue his enemy 200 or 300 yards in the snow the thermometer 15 to 20 degrees below zero and slay him These Esquimaux rub slushy snow dipped in water on the bottom of the runners of their sledges with the open palms of the hands until it freezes into solid ice the thermometer being from zero to 70 degrees de-grees below when I have known it to I be done I have seen an Esquimaux traveler throw himself nn the snow and rest comfortaply for half an hour the thermometer 71 degrees below zero or 103 degrees below freezing and probably doing some light work with ungloved hands The Kinnepetoo Es quimaux who seldom build even the small fires of the native stone lamp in their igloos during the very coldest weather of winter are probably the hardiest of all these boreal tribes in withstanding low temperatures and sit around in their cold cheerless snow houses with only their undergarments on the Esquimaux has two suits of reindeer skins the outer with the hair turned outward out-ward and the inner with the hair turned toward and resting against the body their arms withdrawn from their sleeves and resting on their bare bodies across their breasts chatting all the while pleasantly pleas-antly about various matters the thermometer ther-mometer often being below zero in fact the only warmth the snow house has is that given off by their bodies I have known one of these Kinnepetoos to take an undressed reindeer rein-deer hide that had been soaked in water to remove the hair which was frozen stiff as a plate of boileriron put the same against his naked body and not only hold it there till it was thawed out but until it was perfectly dry so as to use it for n drumhead kcelowtee in their peculiar savage rites In fact I might say that I have been naked myself in a temperature of minus 68 ° during the short time it took to undress roll my reindeer coat in a bundle for a pillow and crawl into my sleeping bag but inmovements partook more of the character of a small boy going to a base ball match than one sawing saw-ing wood |