The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1891-09-05

ment 1t Tell in. 1t was aILer . o CLOCK III
the afternoon before felt safe. But very
little SNOW had come down the chimney.
| reasoned from this that it had been
covered by rocks or limbs. If such was
the case and the fire refused to burn, |
should be hard pressed with plenty of
raw provisions at hand. | felt all the
gravity of the situation as / threw on
some light wood and made a blaze. 1t
was hard fight for half an hour. Some
of the smoke certainly found n way to
escape, but some was driven back. How
ever, after time the heat of the fire
brought down a great deal of water-so
much that / could scarcely keep flame
going-and about 4;30 O'Clock the cabin
was cleared of smoke. While l could not
for an instant believe that the mouth of
the chimney showed above the snow,
was satisfied that some way had been
opened for the smoke to drive away l
may explain here that a great mass of
tree tops lodged on the roof before the
blfsk of that snow came, and these held
the snow up so that the smoke went sail
ing about in a hundred channels
| got myself some supper, wound up the
clock, and sat down for a smoke and
think. The hermit had two pipes and
large stock of tobacco, and lonely as was
my situation feeling of gratitude to God
for the comforts at hand was uppermost
in my mind. Twas now perfectly satisfied
that | was buried deep under the snow,
and that my rescue would be a matter of
weeks. The first move was to write out a
statement of the accident, and this |
placed where it would he preserved and
found in case of my death. Then / began
III
gramme to be followed. A weeks inn
prisonment would be nothing, but after
that it would not do to let the mind dwell
on the situation You see, the horror of
it was the stiffness. The idea kept COM
ing up that | was buried alive, and it was
an awful thing to think of. The hermit's
clock was an old fashioned one, with a
loud tick tack, and after the cabin got
through settling under the weight OF the
snow every tick sounded almost as loud
as the blow of hammer. 1t was so
warm that l needed only the smallest fire,
and when | went to bed at O'Clock there
was no need of even Il single blanket for
cover
| was up at an early hour next morn
ing, having slept like a log all night, and
while eating breakfast was startled by
sounds which | believed to be the voice of
a human being. | thought | could hear
groans and means and cries for help, and
when l opened the door the sounds came
to me more distinctly. 1t might be that
the hermit, caught under the snow, had
succeeded in tunnelng his way to a point
from which could rescue him by digging,
and had no sooner dispatched my break
fast than | set about making me a shovel
to dig with. | found a Ratchet, and with
this shapened a board, and the snow
dug from the doorway / heaped up in the
fuel room. | had not been digging over
half an hour when | made the discovery
that the first rush Of the avalanche had
brought down great lot of small trees,
bushes, and rocks, with here and there a
large tree. They had been piled up heller
SHELTER, but they held up the mass of snow
50 that with a little digging / could run q
tunnel in almost any direction Great
care was necessary, however, as the bur
den above was very heavy, and the dis
placement Of a support might bring down
Il great weight of snow
4 After had run the tunnel straight out
from the door about twenty feet l turned
to the right, made my way under lot
of rubbish, and after going about thirty
feet came upon the body of an Indian.
Here the limbs and sticks made a sort OF
bower, under which he lay and l knew
that it was his voice / had heard calling.
There were no Indians about us except
hostiles, and just before the snow came
they had killed two men belonging to oul
camp. We had no fear of them after
winter set in, knowing that they stuck
close to their villa~eS. Here was red
skin, however. and in full war paint but
had no sooner found him than | saw
that he was dead, though his body was
still warm. He had been mauled in &
terrible manner both legs being broken
his head all bloody from an injury, anC
his right arm doubled under him as il
broken. | could see the butt of his rifle
sticking out Of the snow, but when
pulled at it / found the barrel missing. Il
had been wrenched off | got his toma
hawk and knife, however together witt
powder horn and bullet pouch, and when
had pulled the body along and crept behinC
it, ] caught sight Of a moccasin in tht
snow and dirt. 1t took me an hour t
unearth the body, which was that of {
second warrior. The life had been crushed
out of him in a second. The mass of rocE
which had come down with him haC
broken every bone in his body, and a grea
share of his face had been ground off
His rifle could not find, while both knit,
and tomahawk were broken. Whil
searching his cold and battered body
found a buckskin bag containing abou
$500 worth of small nuggets of gold, ant
this gave me hint to overhaul the other
/ also got from him a bag containing
about 5000 worth of dust and nuggets
and in the search found attached to hi
belt white mans scalp which had no
been off the victims head over two days
They must have been in ambush part wa,
up the mountain, intent upon taking tn