Isolation in deep winter both stunts inner life and blocks it from being told

Evidence

Page 213 the black snow clouds, the bright river was ice bound, the pines were all black, the world was absolutely shut out. How can you expect me to write letters from such a place, from a life “in which nothing happens”? It really is strange that neither Evans nor Edwards come back. The young men are grumbling, for they were asked to stay here for five days, and they have been here five weeks, and they are anxious to be away camping out for the hunting, on which they depend. There are two calves dying, and we don’t know what to do for them; and if a very severe snow-storm comes on, we can’t bring in and feed eight hundred head of cattle. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 232

Categorization

• FICTION: A vivid, self-contained setup for a story about people stranded by snow with animals dying and men pacing for a hunt that will not come.