DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70301#0170
148 kirby’s wonderful museum,
o’clock, she was completely enclosed and hemmed in by it.
The depth of the snow in which she was enveloped was about
six feet in a perpendicular direction over her head between
two and three. Her imprisonment was now complete, for
she was incapable of making any effectual attempt to extri-
cate herself, and, in addition to her fatigue and cold, her
clothes were stiffened by the frost. Resigning herself,
therefore, calmly to her wretched situation, she sat
awaiting the dawn of the following day. To the best of her
recollection she slept very little during the first night, or in-
deed, any of the succeeding nights or days, except on Friday
the Sth. Early the next morning she distinctly heard the
ringing of a bell at one of the villages at a small distance.
Her mind was now turned (as it was most natural) to the
thoughts of her preservation, and busied itself in concerting
expedients, by means of which any one who chanced to come
near the place might discover her.
On the morning of the 3d, the first after her imprisonment,
observing before her a circular hole in the snow, about two
feet in length, and half a foot in diameter, running obliquely
upwards through the mass, she broke off a branch of the bush,
which was close to her, and with it thrust her handkerchief
through the hole, and hung it as a signal of distress, upon
one of the uppermost twigs that remained uncovered; an ex-
pedient which will be seen, in the sequel, to have occasioned
her discovery. She bethought herself, at the same time, that
the change of the moon w as near; and having an almanack
in her pocket, she took it out, though with great difficulty,
and consulting it, found that there would be a new moon the
next day, February the 4th. The difficulty w hich she found
in getting the almanack out of her pocket arose, in a great
measure, from the stiffness of her frozen clothes, before men-
tioned. The trouble, however, w;as compensated by the con-
solation which the prospect of so near a change in her favor
afforded. The extremity of this hole was closed up with a thin
covering of snow or ice, on the first morning, which easily
o’clock, she was completely enclosed and hemmed in by it.
The depth of the snow in which she was enveloped was about
six feet in a perpendicular direction over her head between
two and three. Her imprisonment was now complete, for
she was incapable of making any effectual attempt to extri-
cate herself, and, in addition to her fatigue and cold, her
clothes were stiffened by the frost. Resigning herself,
therefore, calmly to her wretched situation, she sat
awaiting the dawn of the following day. To the best of her
recollection she slept very little during the first night, or in-
deed, any of the succeeding nights or days, except on Friday
the Sth. Early the next morning she distinctly heard the
ringing of a bell at one of the villages at a small distance.
Her mind was now turned (as it was most natural) to the
thoughts of her preservation, and busied itself in concerting
expedients, by means of which any one who chanced to come
near the place might discover her.
On the morning of the 3d, the first after her imprisonment,
observing before her a circular hole in the snow, about two
feet in length, and half a foot in diameter, running obliquely
upwards through the mass, she broke off a branch of the bush,
which was close to her, and with it thrust her handkerchief
through the hole, and hung it as a signal of distress, upon
one of the uppermost twigs that remained uncovered; an ex-
pedient which will be seen, in the sequel, to have occasioned
her discovery. She bethought herself, at the same time, that
the change of the moon w as near; and having an almanack
in her pocket, she took it out, though with great difficulty,
and consulting it, found that there would be a new moon the
next day, February the 4th. The difficulty w hich she found
in getting the almanack out of her pocket arose, in a great
measure, from the stiffness of her frozen clothes, before men-
tioned. The trouble, however, w;as compensated by the con-
solation which the prospect of so near a change in her favor
afforded. The extremity of this hole was closed up with a thin
covering of snow or ice, on the first morning, which easily