The Surface Of The Snow, Thawing In The Sun And Freezing At Night, Had
Become A Strong Crust Which Sometimes Gave Way In A Circle Round Our
Feet, Immersing Us In The Soft Snow Beneath.
The people were afflicted
with snow blindness, a kind of ophthalmia occasioned by the reflection of
the sun's rays in the spring.
The miseries endured during the first journey of this nature are so great
that nothing could induce the sufferer to undertake a second while under
the influence of present pain. He feels his frame crushed by
unaccountable pressure, he drags a galling and stubborn weight at his
feet, and his track is marked with blood. The dazzling scene around him
affords no rest to his eye, no object to divert his attention from his
own agonising sensations. When he arises from sleep half his body seems
dead till quickened into feeling by the irritation of his sores. But
fortunately for him no evil makes an impression so evanescent as pain. It
cannot be wholly banished nor recalled by the force of reality by any act
of the mind, either to affect our determinations or to sympathise with
another. The traveller soon forgets his sufferings and at every future
journey their recurrence is attended with diminished acuteness.
It was not before the 10th or 12th of April that the return of the swans,
geese, and ducks gave certain indications of the advance of spring. The
juice of the maple-tree began to flow and the women repaired to the woods
for the purpose of collecting it.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 232 of 649
Words from 62654 to 62915
of 176017
