The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1869-02-18
A PerfEOus Adventure.


Leon de Buux, a native of Casper,
Lower Canada, and for the last four
months at work Oh the Manitou Island,
left his log cabin on January Cd with his
dog, large, powerful Newfoundland, in
pursuit of game. He soon discoved the
fresh tracks of large bear. Cautiously
! following it he reached the shore of Lake
Huron and saw at no great distance on
the ice very large animal. Climbing
over huge rocks which the storm of the
| previous night had strewn in wild confu-
sion on the rocky coast, he approached
suddenly, the bear stopping and trying to
Ie'rere his steps to the neighboring forest.
| Q ln'erc0Pt the animal De Boux aud
dog went on the ice, wil;vh seemed secure.
as the road was for miles Intercepted bv
water. He gained on the bear from min
| ute to minute, when he saw to his aston>
ishment that the huge beast stopped, look
| ed around and retraccd his steps, chasing
! the dog before him. He slot, and well
! aimed ball entered the head and killed
him on the spot. Rushing toward the
| carcass he did not observe that the wind
had changed and that the ice groaned and
| cracked. He reached the beast and tried
| to drag it to the shore, not more than
! three fourths of a mile distant. Bat i'm
asine his surprise when ne found that the
wind, blowing fresher and more violent,
had made chasm between him and the
land more than two rods broad
At once seeing his perilous position he
! fired rapidly and halloed at the top Of his
voice; no one answered, echo alone
brought his own voice back out of the
! deep recesses and rocks, and he was rap
| idly drifting in sOuthwesterly direction,
| TO the middle of tie lake. His position
was indeod most dangerous, the wind in
creased from moment TO moment, and
when night set in it blew a perfect hur-
ricane, breaking the large piece of ice on
| which he stood into thousand fragments,
! throwing b;m at one moment against icy
masses, at another covering him with a
| freezing wave. There he sat on the dead
| bear, his shivering dog at his feet, look
| ing wistfully at his master for help.
! De Boux saw no help, every moment
/ threatened death, the cold was intense.
unbearable he prayed and asked God 10
{! end his sutferlngs, the ice in the meantime
| drifting more and more to the Michigan
shore, and when they began to break
over the water he could see far in the dis
tance dark line, which grew until he
could distinctly discover that it was land ;
Suddenly the ice on which he lay stopped.
1t had joined huge fields of ice. Ex-
| hauSted and frostbitten, he walked for
miles toward the shore on the frozen ele~
ment, when again the island of ice broke,
drifting steadily toward the Michigan
| shore.
Now he could distinctly see trees and
huts, he heard the barking of dogs, he
tried to load his gun to fire impossible,
| his hands were swollen and benumbed,
! he halloed and shuuted-no help. In
| the meantime the wind had turned more
| to the east, and forced the ice right in to the
western shore crawling on his wounded
hands he at last reached terra firma abont
SIX miles north of the lighthouse, where
some kindehearted fishermen found him
and took him to their shanties,--P0rt
| Hudson Commercial.
THE JAPANEsE MiNr.-All the work OF
making money in the Mint of Japan
which issues coinage of $40, 600 a day
is done by hand. The cutting, the
punching, the milling, the stamping are
all by processes of the simplest manual
labor. Few foreigners have ever been al
lowed to enter the mint. An English di~
plomate who had tins privilege writes Of
one of its curious regulations:
While every operation is performed in
this primitive manner, perfect order pre-
walls in the esl1blishment every man
goes through his portion of the work in
silence, and with regularity of clock work,
and many evince considerable skill =
There are about three hundred hands en-
ployed in the building, When the men
enter in the morning they are made to di-
vest themselves Of their own clothing and
put on others belonging to the mint. At
the end Of their days work gong sounds,
when the somewhat curious spectacle is
presented Of three hundred men springing
from the ground on which they bad been
seated, throwing off their clothing, and
rushing, a naked throng, TO one end OF
the yard. Here they pass through the
following ordeal Their back hair is
pulled down and examined they wash
their hands and hold them up to view /;
they drink water and then halloo sad
lastly, they run to the other end Of the
| ward, clearing two or three hurdles on
their way, after which performance they
are allowed to put on their own clothes
and depart.
| A DOMESTIC BoMBsHELL.-W are in
debted to friend, says an exchange, for