The bandsmen had
always to handle the brass with woollen gloves on, to prevent
getting burnt. How curious it is that the sensation of touching
very hot or very cold metal is identical, and that it produces the
same effect on the human skin! With thirty or more degrees of
frost, great caution must be used in handling skate-blades with
bare fingers if burns are to be avoided. The coldest day I have
ever known was New Year's Day 1888, when the thermometer at Ottawa
registered 41 degrees below, or 73 degrees of frost. The air was
quite still, as it invariably is with great cold, but every breath
taken gave one a sensation of being pinched on the nose, as the
moisture in the nostrils froze together.
The weekly club-dances of the Ottawa Skating Club were a pretty
sight. They were held in a covered public rink, gay with many
flags, with garlands of artificial flowers and foliage, and
blazing with sizzling arc-lights. These people, accustomed to
skates from their earliest childhood, could dance as easily and as
gracefully on them as on their feet, whilst fur-muffled mothers
sat on benches round the rink, drinking tea and coffee as
unconcernedly as though they were at a garden-party in mid-July
instead of in a temperature of zero.
Pages:
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360