Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1873-09-12
A Terrible Boat Ride.


A Terrible Boat Ride.
SHOOTING RApIps--oNE HUNDRED AND
FORTY MILES IN TWO HOURS.
Clear Creek is a miniature river that
runs through the canon of the same
name. 1t descends upon down grade
of four hundred feet per mile, with here
and there fall over a rocky precipice
fifteen or twenty feet in hight. Large
boulders, forty and fifty feet in diameter,
and weighing thousands Of tons, impede
its dashing progress every two or three
hundred yards, while its curves are so
sharp and so frequent that the stream
can nowhere be seen for distance of
thousand feet. Granite cliffs, two and
three miles high, project over it on either
side, and give frightful, romantic and
dangerous appearance to the rushing tor
rent beneath.
Just below Black Hawk, on the other
side of the stream, small reservoir has
been constructed, in which is kept an or
binary skiff. Last Sunday two little sons
of Martin f. Walker, aged respectively
ten and twelve years, got into the boat,
and were splashing the water with a
stick, when the fastenings gave way and
the boat went drifting towards the rap
idly running current. The little boys
soon discovered their danger, but were
powerless to avert it, SO they clutched
hold of the sides Of the boat, and with
paIlid countenances awaited their doom.
Soon the boat was caught by the current
and began descending at a fearful rate !;
over Black Hawk Rapids they went like
an arrow, clearing distance of sixty
feet at single dash. Lighting again on
the torrent surface, the boat seemed to
have gained new impetus, and shot by
the boulders and around the rocky points
with the celebrity Of a sunbeam.
AT distance of about six miles below
the starting point, Conductor Gibbons,
who was standing on the rear platform
of the down c. G. train, saw the boat
coming, and Immediately stopped the
train. All hands repaired to the waters
edge, and did everything in their power
to arrest the flying boat, but past them
she went like bullet from rifle, and
was out of sight in an instant. The con.
ductor then ordered the engineer to put
on full head of steam and follow as
rapidly as possible, which he did, con
stantly sounding the alarm of danger
He did not get another glimpse Of the
boat, but the alarm brought the employ.
ers at Beaver Creek Station to the look.
out, and quickly making slip-noose
they sought to throw it over the bow Of
the boat as she came under the bridge
This they succeeded in doing, but could
no more hold it than they could have
held thunder bolt, and over Beaver
Falls she went with the speed of the
lightning. The falls are about thirty
feet high, and at the foot are a number
of large boulders, but the velocity of the
boat was such that it cleared them east
ly, and struck the water some twenty
feet beyond.
From here no one saw the boat or its
living freight, until it reached point
one hundred miles below Denver
Through Golden into the Platte River
and under the Denver bridges she went
unnoticed, nor slackened her pace until
she lodged in drift, at the distance be
low Denver above mentioned. TIL,
Platte does not run very rapidly, but thu
boat had acquired such wonderful
speed in its descent from the mountain
that is far out-rode the current. A MI
Walsh, who lives on farm near th,
drift where the boat lodged, discovered
the boys still in the boat, which wa
nearly full of water, and took them home
They were restored to their overjoyet
parents the following evening, after hav
ing accomplished the most perilous jour
ney in the quickest time ever before
made by any human being who ESCAPED
alive. The distance travelled was on
hundred and forty miles in two hours
but how it was ever done, or how tn,
boat escaped being dashed to pieces up
on some of the huge bOulders or rocky
cliffs which everywhere intercept tn,
course of Clear Creek, is nothing shor
of providential miracle. Probably no
again in thousand years could tn
journey be made with the best applianc
es, and by the most skillful Mariners
Central City (Cal.) Coach.
How Do THE VIENNA LADIE
DRESS ?"-Well, the ladies of Vienni
wear no bustles, and we may as vel
speak plainly, and add that it is becaus