The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-05-24

to confine themselves to small pans, chang
ing their positions from time to time as dan
ger necessitated. It was impossible to
launch the boat, no seals could be taken,
and actual starvation was inevitable. 1t
was at this crisis that, on the 21st of April,
fortune sent the Polar bear, which they
happily obtained possession of as above
described. The boat was afterwards got
into the water, and they worked their way
west and southwest every day in the hope
OF reaching some part OF the Labrador
coast. The only then remaining shelter
was canvas tent. On the 22d of April
the boat happened TO become separated
from the tent some seven OF eight feet. The
weather, which had been fine Tor some days
previously, with hardly any wind, sudden
ly shifted, and
TERRIBLE STORM,
accompanied with sleet and snow, sprang
up. More suddenly still, and without any
warning sounds whatever, the ice between
the boat and tent burst asunder, with
loud and Neutrality-suspicious.. A cry was at
once raised to ''stand by the boat.o Fred)
Myer, in the darkness Qor it was night,
managed to reach it, though, in attempting
to do so, he narrowly escaped being swept
into the chasm caused by the separation of
the ice foe, and in which the maddened
sea was seething and the shattered and
scattered fragments of the ice were tossing
wildly against each other. Having reached
the boat in safety, his first act was to look
round for his companions.
A TERRIBLE SITUATION.
None were to be seen. and nothing heard
save the roaring Of the tempest and the
grinding and crunching of the clumpers as
they were driven with terrible violence by
the sea. To remain where he was would
be, he knew, to court immediate destruc.
ton. The pan upon which he tottered was
becoming smaller and smaller every mo-
ment, and, great as was the hazard, he
determined, if possible, to launch the boat
again, and, though desperate the attempt,
to cross the chasm that divided him from
his companions. But this was no easy
task. The sea was breaking wildly over
the pan. The boat was heavily laden, and
it seemed that his remaining strength,
though doubled by that desperate situation,
was unequal to the required task. Sew.
eral times did he make the attempt, and
twice was he
w ASHED FROM THE PAN INTO THE
SEA
by the violence of the waves that dashed
over and overwhelmed it. The cold was
intense, terribly augmented by the chilling
and freezing water with which he was COW
cred and saturated. In this awful situation
but little hope remained of his ever again
beholding his comrades or even preserving
his own life.
A FIGHT FOR LIFE.
In moment, as if by magic, the storm
lolled and the surge subsidized, and, strain
ing his eyes through the blackness of that
Plutonian night in the direction in which
he supposed the rest of the party were, he
discovered the two Esquimaux, Joe and
Hans, each standing on small piece of ice
and padding towards him. For them the
ice seemed to have no terrors as for COM
mon men. In second the horrors of the
preceding moment were forgotten. Hope
once more bloomed in all its fullness, re-
CARELESS Of the innumerable perils beyond,
and, strength thus revived with eager hope,
the boat was launched and they joyfully re-
joined their companions.