MR. HERBERT W. SMITH of New York City writes:

". . I cannot tell of snowdrifts sixty feet high, I didn't measure them; but I do know that I walked over the tree-tops, and could not tell exactly whose land I was on, as the fences were not visible. But I was on snowshoes; and as far as I know, I am the only person who has travelled any distance on snowshoes in what is now the City of New York. We were a city family with country instincts. My father and myself worked in New York all the week, from necessity, and lived in the country over the week-ends from choice. Our home was at Little Neck, L. 1. in a house owned by Bloodgood H. Cutter, the Long Island Farmer Poet.. . .

"On that famous Monday morning in March, 1888, there was no question of catching the train for L. 1. City-, there was no train to catch; and the L. 1. R. R. was out of commission for four or five days; (North Shore Division). About Tuesday or Wednesday we began to run out of certain kinds of food.. . Especially, I remember, we wanted BREAD. The nearest bread was at the general store, about a mile away, and between that store and our house, lay an undulating landscape of hills and valleys of snow; depth unknown.. . ." Mr. Smith, then a youth of seventeen, "set to work with some thin, tough wood and leather thongs and made a pair of snowshoes.. . After a few trials and the addition of some cleats to prevent slipping backward, they worked, and I walked over the drifts to the crossroads store and returned with supplies for the snowbound family, Some of the drifts were very high, but I had no means of knowing just how many feet. I do know, however, that I walked clean over the tops of what I knew to be fairly tall trees."