Frieze

“ We were almost perpetually wrapt in thick fogs, beaten with showers of rain, sleet, hail, and snow, the temperature of the air being constantly about the point of congelation in the height of summer; surrounded by innumerable islands of ice against which we daily ran the risk of being shipwrecked, and forced to live upon salt provisions, which concurred with the cold and wet to infect the mass of our blood. ”

“ Unless you get a gust of kitchen in passing some hotel, you shall smell nothing all day long but the faint and choking odour of frost. Sounds, too, are absent: not a bird pipes, not a bough waves, in the dead, windless atmosphere. If a sleigh goes by, the sleigh-bells ring, and that is all; you work all winter through to no other accompaniment but the crunching of your steps upon the frozen snow. ”

“ A chill creeps on, and frosty winds begin to howl across the freezing earth. Colder, and yet colder is the night. The vital blood at length, of all creatures stops congealed. Down goes the frost toward the earth’s centre. ”

“ The snow, both in respect to its component parts, and to the air contained in its pores, is a bad conductor of heat, and will therefore well keep out the external cold; and as the water, when part of it dissolves, is attracted into the pores of the remainder of it, the situation of an animal beneath it is perfectly dry; and, if he is in contact with the earth, he is in a degree of heat between 48, the medium heat of the earth, and 32, the freezing point; that is, in 40 degrees of heat, in which a man thus covered will be as warm as in bed. ”

“ At night the earth gets cold. The water-gas, if the night is calm, comes out of the film of air next to the earth. It settles in the form of tiny drops on everything around.
“When the earth gets very cold, the water freezes as it changes from gas to water, and instead of dew we have frost.”
“Oh, that is why we have frost on the inside of the window panes in winter,” said Frank.
“That is so,” said his uncle. “The frost on your window pane is the water-gas of the warm room changed into particles of ice. But let us come back to our steam puff. ”

“ The alternate heat of the day and cold of the night—a cold which is often great, owing to the radiation into a cloudless sky—split the masses by alternate expansion and contraction, make great flakes peel off them like the coats of an onion, and give them these singularly picturesque shapes. ”

“ In the middle of the night the cold was bitter, so cold that I had icicles hanging on my moustache and eyelashes. It was impossible to remain on the camels, and ill as we all felt we had to walk—drag ourselves would be a more suitable expression—to keep ourselves from freezing. On these cold nights we simply longed for the sun to come out. ”

“ When such holes freeze, and a rain succeeds, and finally a new freezing forms a fresh smooth ice over all, it is beautifully mottled internally by dark figures, shaped somewhat like a spider’s web, what you may call ice rosettes, produced by the channels worn by the water flowing from all sides to a centre. ”

“ When below the freezing point, frost is formed or deposited on the earth. It is readily understood from this that the surface on which the frost is deposited is at a freezing temperature, while the air above it may not be freezing. ”

“ The cold’s got an edge like a jackknife — it must be forty below;
Leastways that’s what it seems like — it cuts so fierce to the bone.
The wind’s getting real ferocious; it’s heaving and whirling the snow ”

“ But in the bitterest winter it was never cold enough to freeze, further than to form surging masses of frazil ice that would neither let a canoe push through them, nor yet support the weight of a man. ”

“ What, I asked myself, if the frozen folk were coming to life? What if they were like the liquid helium that got a new lease on life and started crawling toward the heat just when you thought its molecules ought to freeze solid forever? ”

“ The cold felt has little in common with the brisk, keen cold of a frosty day or that met with at a high altitude; but it has certain raw and penetrating properties, and the discomfort becomes hourly more acute, while at every moment the puddles suck and squelch beneath you, and fresh streams of colder water flow in from unexpected directions to chill you to the bone. ”

“ It is; and the freezing of the watery vapour which the atmospheric heat could not dissolve, produces what is called a hoar frost; for the particles descend in freezing, and attach themselves to whatever they meet with on the surface of the earth. ”

“ Even more beautiful and fairy-like, if possible, is the garment of frozen fog with which all external objects are adorned and etherealized when the spring advances and the temperature of the water is raised. ”

“ Just about every kind of food you or I will freeze contains moisture or water, and the process of freezing food involves the freezing point of water. As temperature of the surrounding air goes below the freezing point of water, the water progressively crystallizes out in the form of pure ice. ”

“ But we need not climb the Andes for an illustration; if we plunge one hand into a basin of hot, and the other into one of cold water, and then mix the contents of each vessel, and replace both hands in the mixture, we shall experience the sensation of heat and cold, from one and the same medium; the hand, that had been previously in the hot, will feel cold, whilst that which had been immersed in the cold water, will experience a sensation of heat. ”

“ The air from B—"
"Do we begin all over again now?"
"More or less, yes."
"So that at this place, A, it's always raining or just going to rain?"
"Yes, if it starts by being hot there, as it did just now, I suppose it is."
"What happens if it starts by being cold?"
"It rains. I've explained that. The cold air can't contain so much moisture—"
"Don't begin that again. What about B? Is it any good going there? We had frightfully high pressure there at one time." ”

“ Arrived at the place of destination, our feet are benumbed with cold—the grass is yet damp with the last night's rain—a general shivering, with an impulse to get away, creeps over us—we grow caustic and bitter in our remarks, and finally end the day with the commencement of a severe cold. ”

“ Freemartin, frē′mar-tin, n. a cow-calf born as a twin with a bull-calf, usually barren.
Freeze, frēz, v.i. to become ice or like a solid body.—v.t. to harden into ice: to cause to shiver, as with terror:—pr.p. freez′ing; pa.t. frōze; pa.p. froz′en.—adj. Freez′able.—ns. Freez′ing-mix′ture, a mixture, as of pounded ice and salt, producing cold sufficient to freeze a liquid by the rapid absorption of heat; Freez′ing-point, the temperature at which water freezes, marked 32° on the Fahrenheit thermometer, and 0° on the centigrade. [A.S. fréosan, pa.p. froren; Dut. vreizen, Ger. frieren, to freeze.] ”

“ Then the mercury fell below zero, and everything froze. I melted a tin of water for washing by the fire, but it was hard frozen before I could use it. My hair, which was thoroughly wet with the thawed snow of yesterday, is hard frozen in plaits. ”

“ In our country when the air in the course of a frost continues a day or two at very near 32 degrees, the common heat of the earth thaws the ice on its surface, while the thermometer remains at the freezing point. ”

“ But when snow or rain would fall so heavy that it was impossible to keep a spark of fire alive, to have to weather out a long, wet, cold, tedious night in the depth of winter, with scarcely clothes enough to keep one from freezing instantly ”

“ Other things, such as stones, are melted only by terrific heat.
When the little particles of water that make up the clouds become very cold, they freeze as they gather and so make snowflakes. When the little particles of water in the air, that usually make dew, freeze while they are gathering on a blade of grass, we call it frost. When [pg 98] raindrops are carried up into colder, higher air while they are forming, they freeze and turn to hail. When snow or frost or hail or ice is heated, it melts and turns back to water. ”

“ But in very cold countries the ground is frozen and covered with snow, and all the lakes and rivers are frozen over in the very beginning of winter. The cold then first begins to be extreme, and there appears to be no source of heat left which is sufficient to moderate it in any sensible degree. ”

“ The coldness of the upper region is manifested by the hail, which sometimes falls from it in warm weather. 2. That heated air may be very moist, and yet the moisture so equally diffused and rarified as not to be visible till colder air mixes with it, at which time it condenses and becomes visible. Thus our breath, although invisible in summer, becomes visible in winter. ”

“ Frost, Ice, Snow and Hail, do not proceed from the coldness of the air, but rather the coldness of the air proceeds from them; for Ice, Snow, and Hail, proceed from cold contraction and condensation of a vaporous or watery substance; and, as Frost and Snow cause air to be cold, so Thunder and Lightning cause it to be hot, so long as they last. ”

“ It is thought the snows of winter furnish the water and a draught of cold air the freezing, this having been carried on until a solid body of ice has formed among the rocks, which melts a little by day and freezes again by night, so that the supply remains from season to season. ”

“ You know that, in the freezing months, much of the warmth we get is given out by the earth, from which, at intervals, if not constantly, to some extent, ascend the warm vapors to mingle with and moderate the cold atmosphere above. ”

“ During the winter months, also, things are passable enough, for then everything is frozen; but, in the beginning of spring, when frozen nature undergoes the process of thawing, then it is that one wishes to be deprived of his nose. ”

“ This passage from the Phoenix shows how repetition emphasizes the absence of disagreeable things:—
"...there may neither snow nor rain,
Nor the furious air of frost, nor the flare of fire,
Nor the headlong squall of hail, nor the hoar frost's fall,
Nor the burning of the sun, nor the bitter cold,
Nor the weather over-warm, nor the winter shower,
Do their wrong to any wight." [27]
The general absence of cold is here made emphatic by mentioning special cold things: "snow," "frost," "hail," "hoar frost," "bitter cold," "winter shower." ”

“ After air, we consider those bodies to be most sensible of heat, which have been recently changed and contracted by cold, as snow and ice; for they begin to be dissolved and melt with the first mild weather. ”

“ Whether in Cold, the diffusion from Cold Bodies be made more strongly downwards, contrary to that of Hot Bodies: Where is delivered a way of freezing Liquors without danger of breaking the Vessel, by making them begin to freeze at the bottom, not the top.
6. Whether that Tradition be true, that if frozen Apples or Eggs be thaw'd neer the Fire, they will be thereby spoil'd, but if immersed in cold water, the Internal Cold will be drawn out, as is supposed, by the External Cold; and the frozen Bodies will be harmlesly thawed? Item, Whether Iron, or other Metals, Glass, Stone, Cheese, &c. ”

“ As our dry air is surrounded on both sides by moist air, it is evident that we must more or less partake of both heat and cold; but it moreover accounts for the happy circumstance that we have much rain ”

“ The Action of Freezing and Thawing.—In those parts of a rock stratum exposed near the surface of the earth the processes of freezing and thawing have perhaps had considerable influence in rock decay. The expansive force of freezing water is well known. Ice occupies a larger volume than the water from which it was formed. ”

“ Thus also have I seen persons put into a great heat by excessive action, and in the midst of that heat, strip off their clothes, and expose their open pores to the air. Nay, I have known some mad enough in this hot condition, to take huge draughts of cold water, or perhaps of milk and water, which they esteem much more cold in operation than water alone. ”

“ Rivers in extremely cold climates freeze over in winter. In the spring, when they thaw, the sound of ice cracking is an incredibly violent sound. The more extensive and severe the freeze, the more thunderous the thaw. ”

“ It is turning very cold to-night, and I think will turn to a frost. Jack has thrown some water on the pavement before my door; and should it freeze, I have given strict orders to my old housekeeper not to strew any ashes, or sand, or sawdust, or any similar rubbish about. People’s bones are very brittle in frosty weather, and this may bring a job. ”

“ With the eyes of developed knowledge we look at the snow as a particular form of crystallized water, and at hail as drops of rain which congealed as they fell. When these become fluid we say they have thawed—thinking of the change as a physical effect of heat ”

“ We find also by experience, that in deep wells the water freezeth not so much as it doth upon the superficies of the earth. For the wind, by which ice is made, entering into the earth by reason of the laxity of its parts, more or less, loseth some of its force, though not much. ”

“ On the other hand, the local contraction by cold during night is greatest over land, where the air is clear, dry, and calm, or nearly so, and least over the ocean, where the air is clouded, and loaded with moisture. As familiar illustrations of atmospheric movements result ing from local expansions by heat and contractions by cold, we may refer to the land and sea breezes, and what de pend upon exactly the same principle, the dry and rainy monsoons in different parts of the globe. ”