The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1871-02-03
Adventure OF n Drove OF Hogs Under
R.SnOw. Drift.

Adventure OF Drove OF Hogs Under
a.Snow.Drtft.
The snow-storm which prevailed in the
West last week was quite as severe as its
predecessor. In Milwaukee the snow was
dritted in some localities to an immense
depth. The misfortunes occasioned there
by to large drove of hogs near one of the
Milwaukee, depots are very amusingly de-
scribed by the Milwaukee Wisconsin in the
following narrative:
ga drove of eight hundred swine, which
arrived by railroad on Friday, for some
reason were turned into private pen near
the stock-yards, and placed in charge of an
Irishman named Michael Finley, pending
the final disposition of them. Finley's'
dreams last night were much vexed with
visions of the swine that had been entrust-
ed to him being entirely overwhelmed by
the masses of snow which he knew must
be heaping up in the yard. At two O'Clock
this morning one of the terrific gusts above
described 'Smote the four corners of his
shanty like a great peal of thunder he
says. He sprang out of bed, pulled in the
stove-pipe, and thrust his arm out of the
hole it occupied, and thrust it right into
snow-bank. 'Och, by the howly powers,'
he roars out to his old woman, get out Of
Ulldl NOW, anu uOu Ie SuulllS tuele any
longer; by my soWl there's come on such q
morning as niver blew from the heavens
before
'Opening the door the snow fell in upon
the floor from the very top Of the doorway
down in Il solid mass, and they were per-
| fectly satisfied that the hogs must be seen
| to. Finley instantly 1oundered to three
ncighborine huts within two or three rods,
| in the course of an hour, and aroused the
men. All agreed they must reach the filthy
baSts as soon rs possible and eXtricate them
from smotheration. But the pen was half
| Il mile distant, and great preparations must
| be made. SO, after prayers and invOcations
| and breakfast, four of them stuffed their
| pockets with boiled potatoes and fried pork,
and shook whiskey in their boots to keep
their feet warm, and then drank it, and
seWed their clothes about them with cor
dage and sail needles, and tied down their
felt hats, and each taking staff they set
out two hours before dawn.
| "Daybreak came before they reached the
railroad track, three hundred yards distant;
| still the white storm was SO thick they
could not see each other, and kept together
with difficulty, having often to hold their
heads between their knees TO recover breath.
They went in single file, taking the lead by
turns. Two lost their hcad-gear, and Fin
ley himself fell over the preciplce of the
railroad dug-way through thirty-one feet of
snow the others, avoiding his steps, came
upon the track, unawares, directly in front
OF the immense tWo-Story and half snow
plow of the railway company, driven by an
| indefinite number of locomotives, and We're
all three turned over in the mass of snow it
turned, like SO many grub-worms. by the
plow-Share, down the embankment, their
legs still sticking upward out of the bilow
OF snow. Finley crept out through tun-
mel melted by the warmth generated from
thrashlng his arms, and finally all turned
up at the hog-pen at Sh O'Clock this morn
ing, where they Immediately sett digging,
and soon discovered that the hogs had
stampeded.
| " However the foregoing accounts may
vary from responsible statements from first
parties (Which, in the haste to collect facts
for the days paper, it is impossible to COL
lect clearly and completely, certain it was
that the whole herd Of eight hundred
swine, OF all sexes and conditions, had
broken through under the snow, and by
the numerous holes visible in the wall OF
snow on the north of the pen, toward the
Menomonee marsh, when that boundary of
the pen was shoyeled out, it was evident
Of ten to fifteen feet of snow, and dispersed
over Il hundred acres or mere, those hogs
were bulrowing and roofing about, uncon-
cerned. The attempt to hunt them out
would have been hopeless but for the
help Of shepherd-dog belonging to the
Caledonian club, which was procured
from the city about an hour before
noon on the Prairie du Chen eX-
press. Seeing the mems perplexity, he
began shutting about on the top of the
snow, and presently scratching, giving a
quick. low bark. Digging at this spot,
they found hog. And so the dog has led
them from that time, bounding eagerly
from one place TO another much faster than
they could dig the creatures out, some
times having twenty or thirty holes marked
beforehand. In this way over one hundred
and ninety hogs have been excavated up to
. o'clock this afternoon, and Il large addi-
tional force of men are probably added be-
fore this.
In every case the swine are alive and
warm, though half sllfocated. On being
taken out they bound swiftly away, but
soon fall helpless, overcome by the change
of atmosphere. A few of them died in
stantly. Eighteen were found in one place,
and were exhausted enough to be driven
slowly, so that they reached the pen with
| out tainting. These, by the way, with the
men driving them, crossed the river una
wares on the hard-packed snow"