The DeLamar nugget. [volume] (DeLamar, Idaho) 1891-1900, 1893-10-14
Thrilling Experiences Shared
by two Brothers.
Forty Eight Days of Hardships, Cold
and Hunger on Isle Royale in
Lake Superior,


e@@S -~><r<@
three men, who were attempting to eros
Lake Superior from Eagle River t
some point on tho Canada side, en-
countered binding snow storm, SO Sc
we're that they ware unable to find thei
reckoning or see one hundred yard
ahead of them. The wind blew hard
and it was not long until they fonn,
their boat in heavy breakers, which
plaidlt told them that they were com
ing againRt rough shore, which, from
their knowledge of their whereabouts
they knew to be Isle Royal, the larges
island in the lake. Their boat wa.
driven into the breakers and wrecked
but 80 near the shore that Two of the
men lsaped through them and swan
ashore, while the third man wal
drowned. The boat was lost sight of al
once. The two men who reached the
shore were brothers. The older was
twenty-five years of age, strong and rug
ged, weig little over two hundred
pounds. The younger, also a strong,
hardy man, was twenty-one years old.
Both were warmly dressed, having
heavy under clothing, good warm suits
and good pilot cloth overcoats. They
found themselves in two feet of snow,
andthey knew that the only inhabitants
on the island were the people living at
and working copper mine. Upon what
part of the island this mine was located
they did not know. They must find it
or perish.
The island is ifty-four miles long, six
to fifteen miles wide, rough and wooded.
They were in wet clothes, in the midst
OF q Lake Superior snow storm, at the
beginning ola northern winter. The
elder of the two men found that he had
three matches in his vest pocket, which,
on account Of his having been but
short time in the water, his heavy
clothing had kept from getting wet.
They were taken out of his peck ct,
damp, but still in condition that he had
hopes that they might burn. The lives
of the two men, it occurred to him, de-
pended upon their being able to start
fire. Their first care was to go back into
the woods, hunt a sheltered place and
kindls Ere if possible. They found
place under the trees where they could |
gather some comparatively dry fuel.
With some rotten "punk,p found in a
hollow tree, and by first trying to start
the fire in the hollow tree where they
were sheltered from the storm. they be-
gan to gain confidence of at sleast tom
poEary security, if one OF their three
precious matches would only burn.
Shiyering with cold, their clothing
,oaked with water and almost freezing
IN than, the elder brother, using every
possible precaution, holding his trembl- ,
ng hands in the hollow of the tree, es- /
aged to light a match against smooth, {
Try place he had selected on the wood !
'fthe tree. There was but an instant
Il awful suspense. The match struck I
ire and at first, very feebly, showed ]
igns that it would ignite the dam /
sncd wood. Slowly the wood on the d
patch began to burn, and carefully it .
7as touched to the rotten punk, which t
i'd not blaze, but, nevertheless, caught L
nd held the fire, which crept slowly v
lto the chunk. They had FIRE and n
no matches left for another emergency,
did not take them long to gather fuel O
nj have rousing fire going against d
10 trunk of the hollow tree Sheltered sc
} they we're from the wind, and par t,
ally protected from the fierce storm, III
ley soon felt their clothing drying npon bl
lem and began to feel comparatively ST
'mfortabls. Becoming warmed, they O,
'gan to think about something to eat in
8 hunger grew upon them the awful m
,ss of their situation forced itself upon W
EN-. They had read stories of sailors iii
ipwrecked upon islands in the seas, la
mild or warm climates. and living in nj
xury upon the fruits Of the land and 10
'hes of the sea had read of the inge-
1ity OF men in procuring food under ~
wing circumstances and peculiar con- tb
tons, but could not recall story that II,
presented condition similar to their wi
IN. On an island. in the greatest I'M dii
ulted sea in the world, whose ice wa
und shores were swept by the storms slo
a Canadian winter, upon whose beach tn
ey conld not wander and search for lee
ell fish, or in whose forests there was tn,
tie or no chance of finding either fruit on
game, whose surface was already coy th.
I'd With more than foot OF snow the
tn more than hundred days of a bit
rthsrn winter before them, their sit sor