Litchfield enquirer., 1867-01-24
AN ARCTIC ADVENTURE.
ENCOUNTER WITH AN ICEBERG.

Dr Hayes in his new work, ''Ths Open Polar Sea" thus relates dangerous en- counter with an iceberg
 "Giving too little heed to the currents, we were eagerly watching the indications of wind which appeared at the south and hoping for breeze, when 1t was discover stealthily setting us upon nest of bergs which lay to leeward. One of them was of that description known among the crew by the significant title of 'touch-me-n and presented that jagged, honeycombed ap- are unpleasant neighbors. The least dis the whole mass to crumble to pieces, and woe be unto the unluckly vessel that is caught in the dissolution.
 ''In such trap it seemed, however, that we stood fair chance of being ensnared. The current was carrying us along at an uncomfortably rapid rate. A boat was low cred as quickly as possible. to run out a line to berg which lay grounded about a hundred yards from us. While this was being done, we grazed the side of berg which rose hundred feet above our top masts, then slipped past another of smaller dimensions. By pushing against them with our ice poles we changed somewhat the course of the schooner; but when we thought that we were steering clear of the mass which we so much dreaded, an eddy changed the direction of our drift, and car ried us almost broadside upon it.
 "The schooner struck on the starboard quarter, and the shock, slight though it was, disengaged some fragments of ice that were large enough to have crushed the ves- sel had they struck her, and also many lit tie Jumps which rattled about us; but for tunately no person was hit. The quarter deck was quickly cleared and all hands, crowding forward, anxiously watched the boat. The berg now began to revolve and was settling slowly over us; the little Jumps fell thicker and faster upon the after-deck and the forecastle was the only place where ther was the least chance of safety.
 ''At length the berg itself saved us from destruction. An immense mass broke off from that part which was beneath the sur face of the sea, and this dozen times larger than the schooner, came rushing up within few yards of us sending vast volume of foam and water flying from it's sides. This rupture arrested the revolu- tion, and the berg began to settle in the
 
 CT danger. A long tongue was protruding immediately underneath the schooner; al- ready the keel was slipping and grinding should be knocked up into the air like a football, orat least capsized. The side of our enemy soon leaned from us, and we were in no danger from the worse than hailstone-showers which had driven us for ward; so we sprang to the ice-poles and ex- erted our strength in endeavoring to push the vessel of. There were no idle hands. Danger respects not the dignity of the quar-, ter deck.
 "After we had fatigued ourselves at this hard labor without any useful result, the berg came again to our relief A loud report first startled us; another and another fol- lowed in quick succession, until the noise grew deafening and the whole air seemed a reservoir of frightful sound The opposite side of the berg had split of, piece after piece, tnmbling vast volume of ice into the sea, and sending the berg revolving back upon us. This time the movement was quicker; fragments began again to fall and, already sufficiently started by the alarming dissolution which had taken place, we were in momentary expectation of see ing the whole side nearest to us break loose and crash bodily upon the schooner, ill which event she would inevitably be car ned down beneath it, as hopelessly doomed as shepherds hut beneath an Alpine ava lanche.
 By this time Dodge, who had charge of the boat, had succeed in planting an ice anchor and attaching his rope, and greeted us with the welcome signal, Haul in.' We pulled for our lives, long and steadily. Seconds seemed minutes and minutes hours. Atlength we began to move of. Slowly and steadily sank the berg behind us, carrying away the main boom and gra- zing hard against the quarter. But we were safe. Twenty yards away and the disruption occurred which We had all so much dreaded. The side nearest to us now split of, and came plunging wildly down into the sea, sending over us @ shower of spray, raising swell which set us rocking to and fro as if in gale of wind, and left us grinding in the debris of the crumbling ruin.
 "At last we succeeded in extricating our selves, and were far enough away to look back calmly upon the object of our terror. It was still rocking and rolling like thing of life At each revolution fresh masses were disengaged; and, as it's sides came up in long sweeps, great cascades tumbled and leaped from them hissing into the foaming sea. After several hours it settled down into quietude, mere fragment of its for mer greatness, while the pieces that were broken from it fioated quietly away with the tide"
 D@ A case of horrible cruelty has come to light in Norwich. A man named Will Hams, determined, ss he says, to break the spirit of his child, confined her in room for three weeks, without clothes, and only a bowl of gruel day, and often without anything for two days. The girl who is fifteen years of age, tried to get out of the window with rope made of sheets, torn up, which broke, and she fell to the ground On Thursday morning the excitement be- came SO intense that crowd of some two hundred persons, evidently bent on vio- lence, assembled in front of Williams resi- dence and broke down the door. Williams appeared in the entry armed with an ax for the purpose of self-defense: The crowd commenced an assault upon him, when he rushed out of the house-having first re- ceived severe blow under the eye from club-and took refuge in store The crowd pursued, and affairs were becoming squally for Williams, who was attempting to defend himself with the ax, when Select man Case and others interfered, ana after