Friday, August 24, 2001
Sometimes Tierney really shines. What a column!
-- Strength Through Failure
You might try contemplating Dante's ninth circle of hell, in which
the worst sinners of all (traitors) are frozen in ice. For a more
specific image, consider the icy problems of Peter Freuchen, a Danish
explorer in the Canadian Arctic who faced what may well have been the
all-time worst-case scenario.
In 1923, Freuchen took refuge during a blizzard near Hudson Bay by
digging a cave in the snow. He awoke to find the entrance blocked by
a snowdrift. (He might have benefited from Mr. Piven's book, which
advises building a snow cave at a right angle to the prevailing
wind.) He was trapped in a dark space not much bigger than a coffin,
with icy walls so hard that he couldn't dig out with his hands. After
many desperate hours, he got an idea.
''I had often seen dog dung in the sled track,'' he wrote, ''and had
noticed that it would freeze as solid as a rock. Would not the cold
have the same effect on human discharge? Repulsive as the thought
was, I decided to try the experiment. I moved my bowels and from the
excrement I managed to fashion a chisel-like instrument which I left
to freeze.''
Freuchen used the chisel to escape, but by then the toes on his left
foot were frozen, and gangrene set in. Far from doctors and
anesthetics, Freuchen used a hammer and pliers to amputate all five
toes himself. ''I cannot attempt to describe the physical pain,'' he
wrote. ''Perhaps one could get used to cutting off toes, but there
were not enough of them to get sufficient practice.''
Does the heat seem a little more bearable?
posted at 4:46 PM