Powder revitalizes the forest, fields and wild open spaces. Yesterday they were lifeless and dark, and in the morning - the powder was whitened, bright and alive. The first snow showed a picture of the night life of the beast, deaf and closed until now. The powder made everything invisible visible and told about the life secrets of the forest.
Powder. Meaning of the word
The meaning of the word “powder” in the main edition is interpreted in the same way. A layer of fresh snow is considered to be powder. Sometimes it is called the first snow. And in the hunter's dictionary one can also find such an answer to the question of what a powder is: "This is snow that fell all night and stopped in the morning." The word is Slavic. The term goes back to the same basis as gunpowder, powder. It turns out that the earth from heaven is covered, as it were, with white powder - snow of any kind: wet (snow porridge), loose and frozen (groats), cirrus and tender, puadera (mainly found in the mountains), virgin soil. By the way, “virgin soil” among snowboarders, for example, means practically the same as powder - an untouched, freshly fallen soft layer of snow. For hunters, the powder that fell in each subsequent time is called “Perenova, ” because it hides old traces and reveals new ones. Depending on the type of snow that falls, the types of powders are distinguished. But we'll talk about this a bit later.
Wild open spaces
Without snow in the winter, for an unnoticed eye, the life of the animal world is invisible. You can wander around the forest or steppe for hours and, except for birds, you will not meet a single living creature. But now the earth was sprinkled with white powder, and a string of animal tracks became visible. Paradise for a true ranger is a forest covered with the first snow in the late autumn or the so-called pre-winter season. At this time, many more animals are active, until they are hibernated: raccoon dogs, badgers. Also active are some representatives of the animal kingdom, which in winter most of the time - under the snow and on the surface appear extremely rarely: muskrats, moles, water rats. In the powder field, it gives out the paths of movement of individual ground squirrels and jerboas, which also have not yet completely hidden in holes. If new snow does not fall for a long time, the so-called "multi-lasting" is formed. In this case, it’s rather difficult to distinguish a fresh trail of an animal from an old one, but new favorable aspects open up for observing trackers: it’s easier to find animal paths, to identify favorite places of animals, and traces of their struggle with each other.
Types of powders
The visibility and quality of the traces largely depends on the type of powders. Experienced people who often visit the winter forest, but mainly hunters, fishermen, amateur pathfinders, and just villagers who live “from the forest” and regularly go there for various reasons, up to harvesting firewood, know very well what powder is, and by type and type they will immediately determine what snow has fallen. Deep and high snow is called “dead” powder. It’s difficult for a person and a large animal to walk through such snow, and they sit, wait, and even less so for a small beast, and there are no traces. On the “printed” gunpowder, on the contrary, the traces are visible and invisible, and all are clear, embossed. "Hard" powder is also called "noisy." Usually it happens in frosty weather - loose snow creaks under the feet of a person and an animal, it makes noise. The hunter gives himself away, and game - well, hears in advance about the approach of danger and manages to bury himself. "Grassroots" powder - snow transferred by the wind from one piece of land to another. Accordingly, one can easily guess what “horse” powder is - it is a precipitate falling from snow clouds. Still there is such a thing as a “warm” powder. This means that the snowball has fallen in warm weather and is already beginning to thaw.
