that so far I had had no flying drifts to go
through. Up to this point the snow was "crawling" only wherever the
thicket opened up a little. What blinded my vision had so far been only
the new, falling snow.

I am sure I looked like a snowman. Whenever I shook my big gauntlets
bare, a cloud of exceedingly fine and hard snow crystals would hit my
face; and seeing how much I still had ahead, I cannot say that I liked
the sensation. I was getting thoroughly chilled by this time. The
mercury probably stood at somewhere between minus ten and twenty. The
very next week I made one trip at forty below--a thermometer which I
saw and the accuracy of which I have reason to doubt showed minus
forty-eight degrees. Anyway, it was the coldest night of the winter, but
I was not to suffer then. I remember how about five in the morning, when
I neared the northern correction line, my lips began to stiffen; hard,
frozen patches formed on my cheeks, and I had to allow the horses to rub
their noses on fence posts or trees every now and then, to knock the
big icicles off and to prevent them from freezing up altogether--but.
my feet and my hands and my body kept warm, for there was no wind. On
drives like these your well-being depends largely on the state of your
feet and hands. But on this return trip I surely did suffer. Every
now and then my fingers would turn curd-white, and I had to remove my
gauntlets and gloves, and to thrust my hands under my wraps, next to
my body. I also froze two toes rather badly. And what I remember as
particularly disagreeable, was that somehow my scalp got chilled.
Slowly, slowly the wind seemed to burrow its way under my fur-cap and
into my hair. After a while it became impossible for me to move scalp
or brows. One side of my face was now thickly caked over with ice--which
protected, but also on account of its stiffness caused a minor
discomfort. So far, however, I had managed to keep both my eyes at work.
And for a short while I needed them just now.

We were crossing a drift which had apparently not been broken into since
it had first been piled up the previous week. Such drifts are dangerous
because they will bear up for a while under the horses' weight, and then
the hard pressed crust will break and reveal a softer core inside. Just
that happened here, and exactly at a moment, too, when the drifting
snow caught me with its full force and at its full height. It was a
quarter-minute of stumbling, jumping, pu