Page:Furcountryorseve00vernrich.djvu/212

 I20 THE FUR COUNTRY. plain. It was mid-day, and but a few faint twilight rays glimmered upon the southern horizon. The cold was not so intense as one would have supposed, and the thermometer marked only 15° Fahren- heit above zero ; but the snow-drifts whirled along with terrific force, and all would inevitably have been thrown to the ground, had not the snow in which they were standing up to their waists helped to sustain them against the gusts of wind. Everything around them was white, the walls of the enceinte, and the whole of the house even to the roof were completely covered over, and nothing but a few blue wreaths of smoke would have betrayed the existence of a human habitation to a stranger. Under the circumstances the " promenade " was soon over ; but Mrs Barnett had made good use of her time, and would never forget the awful beauty of the Polar regions in a snow-storm, a beauty upon which few women had been privileged to look. A few moments sujBSced to renew the atmosphere of the house, and all unhealthy vapours were quickly dispersed by the introduc- tion of a pure and refreshing current of air. The Lieutenant and his companions hurried in, and the window was again closed ; but after that the snow before it was removed every day for the sake of ventilation. The entire week passed in a similar manner ; fortunately the rein-deer and dogs had plenty of food, so that there was no need to visit them. The eight days during which the occupants of the fort were imprisoned so closely, could not fail to be somewhat irksome to strong men, soldiers and hunters, accustomed to plenty of ex- ercise in the open air ; and we must own that listening to reading aloud gradually lost its charm, and even cribbage became uninterest- ing. The last thought at night was a hope that the tempest might have ceased in the morning, a hope disappointed every day. Fresh snow constantly accumulated upon the windows, the wind roared, the icebergs burst with a crash like thunder, the smoke was forced back into the rooms, and there were no signs of a diminution of the fury of the storm. At last, however, on the 28th November the Aneroid barometer in the large room gave notice of an approaching change in the state of the atmosphere. It rose rapidly, whilst the thermometer outside fell almost suddenly to less than four degrees below zero. These were symptoms which could not be mistaken, and on the 29th November the silence all around the fort told that the tempest had ceased.