COLD IN FRANCE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 274, 11 May 1917, Page 3 (Supplement)

COLD IN FRANCE.

WHAT OUR BOYS HAVE ENDURED.

27 DEGREES OF FROST.

Recent letters to hand from our boys at tho front clearly indicate that the weather they have experienced has been bitterly cold. On one morning, not only was there an unpleasant yellow mist, but the temperature actually dropped to 5 deg. Fahr. (27 degrees of frost) and at ono o'clock in the afternoon, supposed to be about tho warmest time of the day, it was still only 21deg., or lldeg. of frost. At one period of the afternoon, too, there was a sort of quavering in the gas supply. The flame hesitated and went down' ominously, as if reminding the public that this source of heat cannot bo relied upon indefinitely; and there, wero pessimistic allusions to the possibility of having to close flats and offices and retire to hotels.

It was impossible to bring coal barges up the Seine, and even above Paris the ice began to interfere seriously with navigation. Eight people who had been struck down by tho cold were picked up in tho streets. A lady of sovontyfivo was found dead in her fineless room in the Rue d'Orsel, with a large hoard of gold in her cupboard. The cold w,".'' especially severe in the centre and south-west of France. At Clermont-Ferrand, which is keeping up its reputation as tho coldest place in tho country, 3 deg. Fahr.. was registered, and Lyons reported an even more phenomenal figure, 32 deg. of frost. Even Marseilles was. compelled to admit tho existence of temperature below freezing-point.