Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1888-11-09

sank as soon as lowered 1t was impossi-
BILE to lower them owing to the mad be
havior of the panic stricken crowds, who
fought like wild beasts for a place in
them. A few gentlemen and sober-headed
sailors could do nothing against mob OF
frantic creatures, each bent on saving his
own life if it cost the existence OF every
body on board.
And thus it was exactly twenty minutes
from the time that the Kangaroo sank the
whaler (for, although these events have
taken some time to describe, they did not
take long to enact that her own hour
came. and, with the exception Of
eighty-and-twenty souls. al told, the hour
also of every living creature who had TAX
en- passage on her.
CHAPTER XIII.-KERGUELEN LAND.
AS soon as Mr.. Meeson, saved from
drowning by her intervention, lay gasping
at the bottom of the boat, Augusta, over
come by momentary faintness, let her
head fall forward on to the bundle OF
blankets in which she had wrapped up the
child she had rescued, and who, too terri
fed to speak or cry, stared about him with
wide-opened and frightened eyes. When
she lifted it, q few seconds later, ray
from the rising sun had pierced the mist
and striking full on the sinking ship, as,
her stern well out, of the water and her
bow well under it, she rolled sullenly to
and fro in the trough Of the heavy sea,
seemed to wrap her from hull to truck in
wild and stormy light.
She's going!-by Heaven, she's going!"
said the seaman Johnnie; and as he said it
the mighty ship slowly reared herself upon
end Slowly-very slowly, amidst the
hideous and despairinS shrieks of the
doomed wretches on board of her, she lift
cd her stern higher and higher, and
plunged her bows deeper and deeper. They
shrieked, they cried to Heaven for help;
but Heaven needed them not, for mans
agony cannot avert mans doom. Now,
for space, she was standing almost up
right upon the water, out of which about
a hundred feet of her vast length lowered
like some monstrous ocean growth, whilst
men fell from her in showers, like flies be-
numbed by frost, down into the churning
foam beneath. Then suddenly, with
swift and awful rush, with rending
sound of breaking spars, loud explosion
of her boilers, and smothered boom OF
bursting bulkheads she plunged down in
to the measureless deeps, and was seen no
more forever.
The water closed in over where she had
been, boiling and foaming and sucking
down all things in the wake of her last
Journey, while the steam and prisoned
air came up in huge, kissing jets and bub-
bles that exploded into spray on the sur
face.
The men groaned, the child stared stupe-
fed, and Augusta cried out, "Oh! Oh!' like
one in pain.
Grow back" she gasped, ROW back and
see if we cannot pick some of them upp'
mo! non' shouted Meeson, they will
sink the boat!'
"'Taint much use, any way" said John
ME. II doubt that precious few of them
will come up again. They have gone too
deepr"
However, they got the boats head round
again-sIowly enough, Augusta thought
and as they did so they heard n feeble cry
or two But by the time that they had
reached the spot where the Kangaroo went
down, there was no living creature to be
seen; nothing but the wash of the great
waves over which the mist once more
closed thick and heavy as n pail. They
shouted, and once they heard a faint an
swer, and rowed toward it; but when they
got to the spot whence the sound seemed
to proceed, they could see nothing except
some wrockage. They were all dead, their
agony was done, their cries no more as
cended to the pitiless heavens; and wind,
and sky, and sea were just as they had
been
''Oh, my God! my God!" wept Augusta,
clinging to the thwarts OF tho tossing
boat"
zone boat got away-where is it?" asked
Mr.. MeesOn, who, n wet and wretched fig
ure, was huddled up in the sternsheets, as
he rolled his wild eyes round striving to
pierce the curtain of the mist
There's something" said Johnnie,
pointing through q fog-dog in tho mist,
that seemed to grow denser rather than
otherwise as the light increased, at q
round, boat-lke object that had suddenly
appeared to the starbOard of them.
They rowcd up to it; it was q boat, but
empty, and floating bottom upward.
Closer examination showed that it was the
cutter, which, when full Of women and
children, has been fastened to the vessel
and dragged down with her as she sank.
AT certain depth the pressure of the
water had been too great and had torn the
ring in the bow bodily out of her. so that
she returned to the surface. But those in
her did not return-at least, not yet. Once
more, two or three days hence, they would
arise from the watery depths and look up
on the skies with eyes that could not see,
and then vanish forever
Turning from this awful and most mov-
ing sight, they rowed slowly through
quantities Of floating wreckage-barrels,
hencoops, lin one of these they found two
drowned fowls, which they securely and
many other articles, such as oars and
wicker deck chairs-and began to shout
vigorously in the hope OF attracting the
attention of the survivors in the other
boat, which they imagined would not be
far off. Their efforts, however, proved
fruitless, owing to the thickness of tho
fog; and in the considerable sea which was
running it was impossible to see more
than twenty yards or so. Also, what be-
tween the wind, and the wash and tur-
mol OF the water, the sound of their voices
did not travel far. The ocean is large
place, and n rowing boat is easily lost
sight Of upon its furrowed surface; there
fore it is not wonderful that, although the
two boats were at the moment within half
milo of each other, they never met, and
each took its separate course in the hope
of escaping the fate of the vessel The
boat in which were Lady Holmhurst and
some twenty other passengers, together
with the second officer and crew of six
men, after seeing tho kangaroo sink and
picking up ono survivor, shaped u course
for kerguelen Land, believing that they,
and they alone, remained to tell the tale
of that awful shipwrcCk. And here it may
be convenient to state that before night
fall they were picked up by q sealing
Whaler, that sailed with them to Albany,
on the coast of Australia Thence, an ac-
count of the disaster, which, as the reader
will remember, created a deep impression,
was telcgraphed home, and thence in due
course, the widowed Lady Uolmhurst and
most of the other women who escaped
were taken back to England.
To return to our heroine and Mp. Nee
son
The occupants of the little boat sat look
ing at each other with white, scared faces,
till at last the man called Johnnie, who,
by the way. was not a tar of very amia-
bic cast of countenance, possibly owing to
the fact that his nose was knocked almost
fat against the side of his face, swore
violently, and said, ut was no good stop
ping there all the etceteraed day" There
upon Bill, who was more jovial-looking
man, remarked that he, Johnnie, was
etceteraed well right, SO they had bett er
hoist the foresail"
At this point Augusta interposed, and