, 1888-11-16
A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE.
The Story Told of Two Canadian Trappors.
= Narrow Escape.


= Narrow Escape.
Once or twice he showed a curious re-
luctance about allowing a man to approach
him suddenly from behind. Altogether
his actions were so odd that / felt some
curiosity to learn his history. 1t turned
out that he had been through a rather I'M.
canny experience the winter before. He
and another man had gone into a remote
basin, or inclosed valley, in the heart of
the mountains, where game was very
plentiful; indeed, it was so abundant that
r hey-deeided-te-PRss- -wiRter there
Accordingly they put up n log cabin, work.
ing hard, and merely killing enough meat
for their immediate use. Just as it was
finished winter set in with tremendous
snow storms. Going out to hunt, in the
first lull, they found, to their consterna-
ton, that every head of game had left the
valley. Not an animal was to be found
therein; they had abandoned it for their
winter haunts. The outlook for the two
adventures was appalling. They were
afraid of trying to break out through the
deep snow drifts, and starvation stared
them in the face if they staid. The man
that met had his dog with him. They
put themselves on very short
so as to use up their -four as slowly as
possible, and hunted unweariedly, but
saw nothing.
Soon a violent quarrel broke out be.
tween them. The other man, a fierce,
sullen fellow, insisted that the dog should
be killed, but the owner was exceedingly
attached to it, and refused. For a couple
of weeks they spoke no words to each
other, though cooped in the little narrow
pen of logs. Then one night the owner
of the dog was Weakened by the animal
crying out; the other man had tried to
kill it with his knife. but failed. The
provisions were now almost exhausted,
and the two men were glaring at each
other with the rage of maddened, raven
ing hunger. Neither dared to sleep, for
fear that the other would kill him. Then
the one who owned the dog at last spoke,
and proposed that, to give each a chance
for his lie, they should separate. He
would take half of the handful of -four
that was left and start off to try to get
home; the other should stay where he
was, and II he tried to follow the first he
was warned that he would be shot with
out mercy. A like fate was to be the
portion of the wanderer if driven to re-
turn to the hut. The arrangement was
agreed to and the two men separated,
neither daring to turn his back while they
were within rifle shot of each other.
For two days tho one who went off
toiled ON with we. weakness through
the snow drifts ate on the second
afternoon, as he ,oi.od back from q high
ridge, he saw in the far distance a black
speck against the snow, coming along on
his trail. His companion was logging
his footsteps. Immediately he followed
his trail back a little and laid in am
bush. At dusk his companion came
stealthily up, rife in hand, peering eau
tiously ahead, his drawn face showing
the starved, eager ferocity of the wild
beast, and the man he was hunting shot
him down exactly as if he had been one.
Leaving the body where it fell, the wan
derer continued his journey, the dog stag
gering painfully behind him. The next
evening he baked his last cake and divided
it with the dog. In the morning, with
his belt drawn still tighter round his skel-
eton body, he once more set out, with ap-
parently only a few hours of dull misery
between him and death. At noon he
crossed the track of a huge timber wolf;
instantly the dog gave tongue, and, rally
ing its strength, ran along the trail. TIE
man struggled after
At last his strength gave out and he sat
down to die, but while sitting still, slowly
stiffening with the cold, he heard the dog
baying in the woods. Shaking off his
mortal numbness, he crawled towards the
sound, and found the wolf over the body
of a deer he had just killed, and keeping
the dog from it. At the approach of the
new assailant the wolf sullenly drew off,
and the man and dog tore the raw deer
flesh with .hideous eagerness. 1t made
them very sick for the next twenty-four
hours; but, lying by the carcass for two
or three days, they recovered strength
Theodore Roosevelt in The Century.