Frost - Bitten !
p. 31 · Read in the full issue
Unusual Patient In Tahiti
From Our Own Correspondent
Papeete, July 15.
THE hospital at Papeete, for the first time in its history, has had a pati ent under treatment for frost-bite.
This does not indicate that the An tarctic has moved up to 17 degrees 29 minutes South Latitude —although a pro longed maraai (the strong wind from the south) during July and August, often leads us to believe that the South Pole may not be as far away as our geogra phies tell us.
There is a story that, long ago. great hailstones fell at Tautira (on the south east part of Tahiti) and the natives when their fears had abated, gathered them to chill their orange rum-then, as now. the “bootleg” firewater of the high islands.
The patient at the hospital is not. how ever. the victim of the caprices of Nature.
Too much good cheer and an onen door on board the yacht Cassida brought about his undoing. The door was the entrance to the refrigerating chamber. Someone closed the door without troubling him self to look inside.
When, after some hours, a steward went to the cold room for a hannch of frozen mutton, he found the sleeping celebrant in well nigh tho congealed condition of the meat he had come to get!