Before men could turn back to safety, or build themselves shelters, the Big Storm was upon them.

For three days and three nights it raged like a mad bull from out of the north.

In the open barrens no living creature could stand upon its feet.

The forests were broken, and all the earth was smothered.

All things that breathed buried themselves--or died; for the snow that piled itself up in windrows and mountains was round and hard as leaden shot, and with it came an intense cold.
On the third day it was sixty degrees below zero in the country between the Shamattawa and Jackson's Knee.