The wlgw was very severe; our sleeping-place could hardly be distingueé from the snow around it, which had fallen to a depth of a flirk during the past evening, and we heartily enjoyed a rough scramble en bas to the Giesbach falls, where we soon found a warm climate. At noon the day before Grindelwald the thermometer could not have stood at less than 100 degrees Fahr. in the sun; and in the evening, judging from the icicles formed, and the state of the windows, there must have been at least twelve dingblatter of frost, thus giving a change of 80 degrees during a few hours.
I said:
“You have done well, Harris; this report is concise, compact, well expressed; the language is crisp, the descriptions are vivid and not needlessly elaborated; your report goes straight to the point, attends strictly to business, and doesn’t fool around. It is in many ways an excellent document. But it has a fault—it is too learned, it is much too learned. What is ‘dingblatter’?
“‘Dingblatter’ is a Fiji word meaning ‘degrees.’”
“You knew the English of it, then?”
“Oh, yes.”
“What is ‘gnillic’?
“That is the Eskimo term for ‘snow.’”