128 BRITISH AMERICA.

times in February. Thaws take place Whenever the wind shifts for any time to the south, and the weather that immediately succeeds, is always extreme- ly cold. The ice then becomes as smooth as glass, and affords a source of delightful amusement to those who are lovers of skating.

The deepest snows fall towards the latter part of February, or the beginning of March; at which time boisterous storms sweep the snow furiously along the surface of the earth, leaving some places nearly bare, and raising immense banks in others. While these last, it may be imprudent to travel, at least on the ice, or over tracts where there is no wood, as it is impossible to see any distance through the drift. The duration of these storms, however, is seldom longer than one or two days; and then the frost is by no means so severe as when the sky is clear. The effects of the cold in winter, are sometimes fatal. In clear - frosty weather, there is little danger; but the tra—. veller often experiences, particularly during a snow- , storm, or even in clear weather, a drowsiness and indifference to consequences, an inclination to sleep, and, at the same time, little sensibility to cold. Yield- ing to this influence, to which the whole frame becomes as agreeably disposed as if the person Were falling asleep on a feather—bed, is inevitably fatal to life, which appears to be abstracted, with the principle of caloric, from the body by the surrounding cold, and without the least pain; the fluids of the body gradually congealing, until the whole becomes a frozen mass, lixertion alone, until the traveller ,