The Arkansaw traveler. (Little Rock, Ark.) 1882-1???, 1883-01-13

A resident of Cincinnati has received
the following letter from a friend At En-
ghsh Lake, indiana:
have not had time till nov TO write to
you about JohnsonS adventure up the
Lake that terrible night. THIS IS the way
that Johnson vas prevented from getting
do~n the lake. lie had noticed tina, the
floating ice IN the rves was hard when he
went up IN the morning, and that IL be-
came soft and mushy in the afternoon.
He thought that the lake would tse par
tally open and the ice soft. 50 that he
would have no difficulty in pushiag
through II. Everything vent along
smoothly until he struck the ice-gosge
near Jenkins Goose. He got about two
boat-lengshs into II and could get no
further. II was still daylight when he go,
there. He took IN the situation a, once
and said to He'll. the man that vas ", b
him. that II would DO impossible to get
down the lakv that night; that IL would
be their death To undertake it,
The weather was getting intensely cold.
and the drifting snow vas 20 dense that
he could scarcely see the length Of his
boat ahead Of hun. They we're abou,
two rods from the north bank Of the river;
there Was nothing left for them to do but
to turn the boat and seek shelter IN the
woods. Here they encountered much
difficulty. a. the boat could be scarcely
moved on aecoun, Ut the ice and snow
that had been frozen To II. and the ri.et
SO deep that Johnson had To put his
hands INTO the water so that the paddle
would reach bottom. They were fully
fifteen minutes IN getting to- the shore lty
+ tins time II had hr,ome quite datk and
bitter cold. with the snow sitting down IN
torrents. The MS, thing To be done VAS
To Ind shelter from the wind and io
make hic. I'm examination reveal
ell the fac, tina, they had blu, one match.
The situation WAS getting desperate IN
the extreme. and pi,ile>s night before
them. The boa, MAS dragged short
distance into the woods.
Johnson then pred OF the decks with
paddle. took OH his rubber coat. spread
II upon the snow, and turned the boat
over the coat. He then orawlcd under
the boa, and whiltlcd the dee k-boAfd IN
To tine shavlngs upon the rubber coat
then taking his oiled gun-raes from his
cartridge ease, poured his bottle OF oil
upon them, rome OF the rags he sa,uta-
ted with whisky. No, wishing to use the
match until he had exhausted other
means, he proceeded TO obtain hrc by
extracting the shot from some OF his
| shells and putting dry ssss therein. also
putting dry rags IN the barrel of the gun.
In this way he tined several times To set
fire b, shooting under the boat, but did
not once succeed IN ignlting tho rags. by
this time they were nearly frozen. The
time had come To see what virtue there
Was IN the match They could delay no
longer and i've. Tor they were petishing
| Johnson told me the next day that he
/ felt that theti lives depended upon tho
match tina; II II went out their lives
would 10 out with II.
/ They had iifeacy tired for trif AZ, hon,
10 obta a 'Irc with the gua without sue
cess. 80 the matc h was their last resort.
Johnson AGAIN efa~led under the boat tn
arrange the rag and shAvings upon the
rubber coat, So As 10 keep them out ot
the snow. Here he imagined tina, the
/ coat WAS damp and cold. and might es.
tinguish the hre, so he called To- his friend
10 empty his shell box and hand II To HIM
his, bcing done, he carefully gathered
/ his shaving and rags into 1t. Though
altcady suffering With the intense cold.
johnson and Bell took OF. their outer
coats and stuffed them under the wind
--3..t,l -SIl.c- oi lAc-ba.ii helneeI the .lI.s
walc and The ground. Ia prevent the pos
sbihiA oi the Wind putting out the mat,
when lEnted In thls supreme moincn,,
feanBg the awful consequence oi u tHl-
ufe, Johnson weakened and ialieied. and
asked i,ell tu strike the mat. h. i,cll
la kcd the courage Ia do 50. With iinr
gers benulnbcd and nearly frozen. Iohu-
son took from MS rubber mat, h sale the
tie solitary mat n upon winch the l8es
of tao men depended. and. with tre,ub-
ling hand hc Al htsi suutk. oh So care
tally. on the end oi the match sale. he
e. ono sttoke less gentle than the first.
he third stroke with more sIgor, lgn,tcd
The match, and they were safe The faya
and shavings IN the shell box immcdi-
ately took Ire. 4 few dry ,wigs and
limbs were immediately added. Near
the boat was "A hollow ash tree. and to
this the shell box with its precious con-
tents IVES conveyed. la another minute
the ash tree was IN flames from top to
bottom. Other trees and stubs were set
on hre. They kept as many ~ four or
five fires burning at nme, during the
night 80 II the snow should estinguish
one there would be other fires Jeff.
On account Of the difficulty Of getting
supply Of Of fuel, they having no az or
hatehe,, and nearly all the dead limbs
lying on the ground being frozen into the
mid, II became necessity to sc, fire TO
hollow tree when one could be found
Consequently the fires extended over
twenty acres OF ground. About TAO
o'clock in the morning famished nature
asserted itself A maiIAfd was PIC ked
and cleaned and broiled. There was one
piece Of frozen bread and some salt lcf,
IN the lunch box, which served good
purpose. The voyagers broke camp a,
eight o'cloek IN the morning, walked
down the lake over the re. and we're NOON
at the house. Johnson had one ear frozen
and has clothes badly burned. bell was
nearly done for. He slept all tina, day
and night. and he and Johnson ~en,
home on the noon train the neat day.