This section of the country has experienced during the past week, in fact, the past three weeks, the kind of weather oldtimers talk about - the kind that freezes Perry Davis' Pain Killer and revives recollections of times when the toper would "chip off" a drink of whisky.
For several days past the thermometer at this place has been indicating from 40 to 50 degrees below zero but further down the trail is where really cold weather has been experienced. At Selkirk, where a Government-tested thermometer is kept, a register of 71 minus zero was recorded Tuesday morning when the first faint chirp of ice worms was heard. Wednesday morning at the same point 73 below was indicated and by that time the air was resonant with the chorus of ice worms, resembling somewhat the constant din made by seventeen-year old locusts. Blue snow is reported at several places down the line and at Big Salmon the ghosts of Indians long since departed were noticed trailing their tarnished robes through the weirdness of the grim azure. They were supposed to be looking for the "land that is hotter than this."
At an Indian camp just north of this place the native sons and daughters
were sounding their tom-tom incantations Tuesday night and calling lustily on Old Bory to sidetrack the cold wave, one of their number having reported seeing a ptarmigan with blue enameled feet, a sure indication that the worst is yet to come.
Locally every teamster in town is busy hauling wood, notwithstanding the
fact that it is cruelty to animals to have horses out of the barns in such weather. But it is necessary that the wood be delivered in order that our population may remain intact. The manner in which wood is being fed into stoves and furnaces these days recalls the statement of the fireman on the Mississippi river steamer who said "She burned 250 cords of wood a day and I handled every blankety blank stick of it myself." In this emporium
of ink, type and High Class Job Printing at Reasonable Rates is an unassuming, mild-mannered appearing stove that we will back against any twice its size in the territory in a go-as-you-please wood burning contest.
Yesterday morning was the coldest seen at Whitehorse in two years, 60
below being recorded at several places around town, a number of cheap instruments showing even lower register.
The coldest point on the river yesterday morning was Hootalinqua where
the Government-tested thermometer marked 72 below. No Indian ghosts other than the weird phantom of Woodtick William were noticed abroad at Hootalingua. From Hootalinqua to Dawson the average temperature was about 67 below. At Selkirk where it had shown 78 the preceding morning it had mounted to 66 and ice worms were beginning to gasp frequently and perspire freely.
Regardless of her numerous hot air plants, it was 50 below at Carcross yesterday morning and a strong wind was blowing from the North. At several points half way between Atlin and Ashcroft it was as low as 40 minus.
At Skagway yesterday it was 4 below and the wind was blowing so hard from
the North that the bowling balls turned back from a point about half down the= alley - much sooner when the back door was open.
The question now is: When will this sort of weather let up? W. A. Puckett
says it will last until the moon changes next Monday, and, according to G. C. Killam, another weather prophet, it got warm three days ago.
