Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1866-02-09
miscellaneous.
A PERILOUs JOURNEY.

CARRIED DOWN THE NIAGARA ON ICE.
Mr. W. A. Thomson has written long
account to the Buffalo Courier Of his peril
GUS adventure on Saturday last in crossing
the Niagara river in a small boat in company
with two other persons, as alluded to in a
telegraph despatch. The party left Fort Erie
about o'clock, and were about two hundred
yards from the landing at Black Rock, on the
opposite shore. when the boat was struck by
the ice and half filed with water. They man
aged to get it up on a small oake Of ice and
tried to bail it out While doing this there
was another sudden rush Of ice, running at
the rate of four or five miles an nour, and the
boat and men were dashed into the river
One of then, Bartlett, jumped upon another
and larger piece Of ice, but Mr.. 1homson and
the third, Warren, fell into the water. Mr.
Thomson describes the hard struggle he had
in order to draw himself up and secure foot
ing on another cake OF ice, during which War
rem, although powerful man, was drowned
within twenty feet Of him, being unable to
sustain himself amid the rushing masses Of
ice. Mr.. Thomson, after the boat was upset,
olutched it again, and managed to g't seated
upon it--one end being couple Of feet under
water, and the other raised in the air From
this perilous position he sought to obtain
another somewhat less dangerous, and pres
emily made plunge to reach passing cake
OF ice. He fell with his breast and face upon
it, but. being unable to force himt elf further,
he was in the greatest danger of falling back
ward, when he would inevitably have been
drowned by the ice floating over him. At
this critical moment one end Of the boat tilted
up. giving some support to his feet-slght,
indeed, but enough to aid him in getting upon
his legs on the ice. He remained on this
piece of ice two hours and a half before he
was rescued, floating down the Niagara to-
ward the rapids above the falls. His clothes
were frozen stiff and in his struggles be h ID
lost his hat, gloves and overshoes as we'll as
leather bag containing papers, which dsap.
peared with the boat. In this way he was
carried seven miles down the river, Bartlett
being several hundred feet from him on anoth-
err cake. Mr.. Thomson cried loudly for help
at intervals, and Bartlett " did some good
loud praying" as Mr.. Thomson says, from
whose narrative we quote this description OF
the closing moments Of the perilous adventure:
"Light became scarce, and as there was
pause in the shouting, thought would sum
up cur situation and chances. felt it was
absurd for my lips to close thus; it did not
strike me as harmonizing with the endless
chain of natural laws that fills the universe,
and this notion led me to expect rescue
Still, saw our chance was one in thousand I;
but thought the boy Bartlett was the most
likely to escape, therefore ! told him if he
was saved and lost, to tell my good wife
and children my goodbye, and to say that
went under bravely. Next to the regret at
the loss which felt would be TO my family,
l was keenly mortified at my not having been
h., - 4
production and government, the law Of the
world. Mortified to think that that cursed
law of debt and credit, taxation and tariff. the
falsity and unnecessary existence OF which
know have by life of experience discovered,
should have been left unchanged, certain
curse to my children and ohildren's children,
as to the rest of mankind. Then | partly
consoled myself that had left published
record Of my philosophy, the only practical
philosophy Of individual liberty, which, in my
opinion, has ever been uttered. Finally, as
l am writing he real thoughts of a mind
standing side by eide with apparently newt
able DEATH frankly say, that a sober sorrow
for the loss to my family and the unbalanced
progress Of my philosophy in other mems
minds, hold my thoughts nearly enchanted,
to the exclusion of either the past or future
Lights on Grand Island began to re-appear,
and again turned my attention to shouting.
At last circumstances changed in our favor /;
my shouts we're answered and after much
moving on shore, and half an hours delay,
during which we foated a mile further, / had
the intense satisfaction of seeing light move
over the water, through he ice, and coming
directly toward me, led by my shouts, by
which i continued to guide the boat Alright
Slowly and with difficulty came the boat, but
at last it was alongside of my ice cake. As
the lantern fell upon said cake, looked to
see what had been on for three long hours,
and found it was a splendid thirty feet cake
Next to going over the Falls OF Niagara, " hioh
we certainly would have done il we had pa s.
ed unnoticed the spot where we now were, il
being the very last chance Of our being heard
on the river, and the Falls only seven miles
off, say next to that my cake cracking in
two by my own weight, or pressure from
other ice had occupied my occasional attention
all the way, and so, when my frozen mass Of
clothes, with my body inside thereof was
rolled into the bottom of the boat, rested
very thankfully until | reached the shore.
When / reached the house Of the good black
smith, Patrick Slack. l received as much
kindness, and enjoyed a nice clean bed after
awhile, with as much gusto as il il bad been
at home. was as fresh and as lively as if |
had never been on the ice at ALL and il is
only to-day that every bone and bit Of flesh
on my body are as equity and sore as il | had
been desperately beaten. Bartlett was res
cued BY another boat, and poor Warren was
drowned just above where the International
bridge is to be placed"
Translated from the Arabic the Eclectic Magazine
THE VILEST OF GODS CREATURES I