Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1859-10-14

La Mountain got acFoss safely: but my
weight was greater than bis, and tho rait
lot me into thestream. sank in all over
and swan out though is required al my
strength to do so, and on reaching tho
bank found myself 50 chilled as scarcely
10 be able TO stand. ] took Of my clothes,
wrung them, and we proceeded 10 the shan
", where VIC found plenty Of refuse straw;
but IL was Cry, and under a pile Of il we
crawled-pulled il over our heads and faces
in the hope that our breath might aid in
warming our chilled bodies. / think the
most rcvengeful stony heart would have pi-
tied our condition then. The weary hours
Of night at last wore away, aud we held
new council. II was evident, we reasoned,
that the creek we were upon was used. for
"driving" logs in the spring season. IT,
then, we followed il TO It's confluence with
the Ottawa or some other stream which
emptied into the Ottawa, we should in time
get out the same way the timber went out.
The of the shanty was covered with
the halves of logs, scooped out in manner
familiar 10 all woodmeD. These we're light
and dry and would form an excellent raft.
Why not, then, take four Of these, tic them
to cross pieces by wyths and such old things
as we could find around the shaniy, and pole
the structure down to that civilization which
a saw log ought to be able to reach Such
was the course we adopted. We dragged
the logs down TO the creek, and La Noun
tain tied them together, as he was evidently
more of a sailor than myself. We got un-
der way, and as we pushed off crow set
up dismal cawing-an inauspicious sign,
and ominous Of the great trials and suffer-
ings in store for us. We poled down stream
about ten miles ane came abruptly upon an
immense pine tree which had fallen across
the stream, completely blocking the passage
of the raft. No other alternative was left
but to unite the pieces and attempt to push
them through under the log. This was at
last done; tied the raft together again and
poled her down stream. To-day we each
ate raw frog, all we could find, and began
to feel that we were hungry. But there
was no compaining-our talk was Of the
hopeful future, and Of the civilization we
hopee yet to reach. Down the creek we
went into a lake some two miles long. and
into which we ofcourse supposed the stream
pasSee, having its outlet at the lower end.
We followed down the northern bank, kee-
ping always in shallow spots, so that our
poles could touch the bottom. until we arri-
we'd at the bottom of the lake, where we
found no outlet, and turned back upon The
southern bank in quest of it. On reaching
the head of the lake we found that the cur
rent Of the creek turned abruptly to the
right, which was the cause of our losing it.
We felt happy to have found it' again,
and Piled our poles like heroes. We passed,
during the day, the spot where we first
struck the creek, and where we had made
landmark which might afterward aid us in
finding the Atlantic" should we ever wish
to do so in order to get her out At night
we did not stop, but kept the raft going
down through the shades of awful forests,
whose solemn stiffness seemed 10 hold tho
unrevealed mystery of our darkening future.
About 10 o'clock it commenced to rain
again. We stopped the ''vessel," and crawl
ed in under some stag alders on the bank,
where our extreme WEAKNESS enabled us to
get perhaps, half an hours sleep. Rising
the rain down an unknown stream, than to
lie on the ground and freezc,) we pressed
on for couple of hours, until about o'clock,
when pure exhaustion induced us to stop
again. This time we found spot where
the clayey bank lacked little of coming
down to the water. On tho mud we
threw our little bundle Of straw, and sat
down with our feet drawn under us, so that
our bodies presented as little surface as pos
sible for the rain to beat upon. But we
could not stand such an uncomfortable posi-
ton long, and as daylight of the Sabbath
broke upon US, were polling down the stream
iN a drizzling rain. At o'clock we came
10 place where the stream caaOned-rush-
ing over a stony bed, down steep descent
between high rocks on either bank. To get
our raft down this place we regarded as
hopeless. We tied up and examined tho
shore. Here, again we discovered unmis-
taxable evidence of lumbermen, as they had
evidently encamped atthis pointto be handy,
I by the attempts they were doubtless obliged
to make to get the timber down the canon.
The rapids were about third of mile
long, and in all the rapids of Black River
there is nothing so wild and romantic as
these. We descended the bank and
thought it best to try our luck on foot. AZ
ter travelling about mile, we found the
bank so tangled and rugged, and ourselves
so much exhausted that locomotion was i'm
possible. So we concluded to 90 back, and
if we could get the raft down a piece at a
time, we would go on with her; if not, we
would build as good place as possible to
crawl into, and prepare for death.
We went back and after examining tho
stream attentively, concluded TO Try to get
the raft down. We at once commenced,
and freely confess this the most trying
and laborious work of life Of labor. The
, pieces would not float over rod ut time
, before they would stick on some stone which
the low water, left above the surface, and
then you must pry il over in some way, aut
: pass it along to the next obstruction. VIZ
we're obliged to get into the stream up Il
: the middle, and there | several times fel
headlopg-compleiely using up our com
pass, which now franiicaly pointed in any
: direction its added head thought desirable
= The water had uuglued the case. and il was
ruined. After long hours Of such labor, VIC