News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-09-09
THE TERRIBLE UNDERTOW.
A Little Incident of the Sea COast-A Skel-
etOn.

There is a more terrible menace for
| the bather at the seashore than the
white-capped waves tumbling IN on the
! bar-something to be dreaded more
| than deep and treacherous holes cut in
the sands by the last tide-something
which inspires more horror than the
SIGHT of Shark. 1t is the fierce clutch
| of the undertow-the unseen current
which drags strong men to their death.
At one spot it is q thread of silk pulling
at the bather at another it is cha
dragging him out to the depths where
the horrible sea spiders creep and crawl
the fierce crabs fight each other-the
shark and the stingaree watch and wait
for victims.
A score of us sat on the sands watch
ing for high water. Here and there be-
yond the bar whitecap showed it elf
at intervals, and now and then the
wind breezcd up little, but there was
no sea to speak of. 1t was simply the
pulsations of the great ocean the heav
ing OF the waters shorewards as or.
dained bv Him at the creation. They
rolled in upon us vexed and angry and
defiant, and their froth blew past us and
over us and fell upon the dark sands to
make blotches of yellow white. A wave
breaking on the sands would fall back
upon itself with sudden roar, churnin2
up the foam until the green waters were
hidden, but the next would take mad
rush and sweep up the long slope as If
it would cross the island before it
rested
Suddenly, on the crest of wave roll
ing in as moves a thief in the darkness,
we caught sight of horrible object,
and women screamed and men sprang
up. 1t was a human body-the clothing
rent and torn, the flesh hanging in
shreds to the bones, the sightless eyes
seeming to stare at the shore as if to Sc
lect landing place. The wave rolled
in and in, and the body came nearer
and nearer. It was left in the boiling,
bubbling, seething froth as the wave
broke, and we sprang forward to secure
it. But the treacherous undertow was
ahead of us. 1t clutched the body and
hurled it out OF sight beneath the sur
face and back towards the bar When
it released its hold the corpse rose and
moved towards us again, now on its
face with arms parted like a swimmer,
now on It's back with the afternoons
sun rejecting from the polished skull.
1t was hurled almost at our feet, and
again the undertow eXulted over our de-
feat. 1t drew him out of sight, dragged
him far out and hundred feet down
the shore, and then 1t released him to
let the roaring waves mble the poor
body landmarks again. For half an
hour we watched and waited. Then,
ha
brought the body to the sands and threw
it far up the beach with sickening
thud.
Poor naked, feshless, broken skele,
toni In the great storm of February a
bark had foundered on this hostile
shore, and this was one of the eight
men drowned. He had reached the
sands on an overturned yawl, when the
undertow clutched him and dragged
him away to his death. The body was
not to float out to sea or become food
for sharks. Off this bar at some point
where two treacherous currents met and
created an eddy, the drowned man rest
ed in the sands, and in a night was
covered three feet deep, He rested in
that grave until to-day, undisturbed by
sound from shore or sea. Then the re-
vengeful under.ow began its work OF
uncovering him for further sport. II
cut channels over and around him, and
it finally lifted him from his bed and
cast him up to our sight and at our feet.
Then, as we gave the poor foreigner a
quiet grave in the dry sands, three
thousand miles from bis native shores,
the undertow raved and seethed and
clutched vengefulIy at the feet of the
children who walked upon the shore.
NJ. QUAD.