St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-05-20

Wnlte nedrQ a SHOUT, ana looking PACK, fro
saw Strole thrown from the raft to disappear
the next instant beneath the current. The
force of the descent loosened the logs at one
end, causing them to spread out like fan,
and White was thrown into the water. He
chung to the raft however. with the strength
of desperation" and SO remained until it
had floated into a calmer water. He succeed
ed in making landing on a strip of shore,
then tying fast the logs, he sat down to con-
template the situation.
White was now alone. The catastrophe
that resulted in the death. OF Strole also de-
prived him of his arms, which were really of
no use in this place, but he also lost what
was of greater importance, and that was the
last scrap of provisions. AS he sat there,
bewailing the fate of his eomrade, and half
regretting that he had not himself shared it,
he looked up between the towering cliffs, that
seemed as if about to fall in and bury him in
the earth's depths, and he saw the red-tinged
clouds that told him the sun was again set
ting in the upper world. He slept but little
that night. His mind was as desperate as
the situation. But as he took review of
the past, thoughts of his far-away Iowa home
came to his mind, and CLEAN of hope to his
heart, and, to use his own language, he made
up his mind to ''die hard, like man."
The next morning he fastened the ends of
the logs and strengthened the raft by means
of some pieces of wood, which he found in
the creyices of the rocks, then again resumed
his journey. He also took the precaution to
fasten himself to the raft by means of
halter, and this precaution more than once
saved his life, for within the next forty eight
hours the raft WAS wrecked no less than four
times. Hunger now came to him as an
added calamity. 1t was sixty hours since he
had tasted food, and the want of it began to
tell on his strength. The thirteenth day
after starting the raft reached the point
where the character of the banks changed.
Hitherto the rocks on either hand had been
limestone, sandstone or Shale. suddenly they
became black, igneous masses, whose sum-
mits flashed like torches in the sun, and
whose lower expanses added to the gloom of
side canyon, which he believed to be that of
the Colorado Chiqufto, OF Little Colorado,
the raft, which had been floating quietly,
suddenly came to asstand. The current of
the Chiquito, striking that of the main river
at right angles, produced a whirlpool, into
which the raft was swept. Here, for the first
time, White abandoned all hope, and felt that
the end had come. IL About the vortex
the raft was swept, and the poor fellow closed
his eyes, expecting to be enguIfed in the
waters, but as he neared the point of danger
the logs appeared to be seized by some inv1s-
ible power and were hurled to the outer
edge of the whirlpool, to again approach
the vortex and to have the same
thing repeated. How long this continued,
White does not recall. d He became dizzy. and
thought he must have tainted. When he re-
gained consciousness, the raft was away from
the whirlpool and floating down the calmess
part of the river he had yet encountered.
From this point on he met with neither whirl-
pool nor rapids, but the black, igneous rocks,
that seemed higher than ever, and the gloom
and silence became appalling. After his adj
venture at the mouth of the Chiquito, he had
not strength enough to make the customary
landing that night, but lay ON the raft half
crazed with fever and hunger.
The following day he saw ahead point
where the banks of the river expanded, ex-
posing valley several hundred acres in ex-
tent, in which Stunted trees were growing
By great effort he succeeded in making
landing, and though he did not know the
names of the trees, never having seen that
variety before, he found that they bore spiral
pods, each containing a number of green
beans. This was the mezquite tree, for which
the Lower Colorado is noted, and the beans of
which, when ripe, form an important article
of food to the Indians along the rivers banks.
Having appcased his hunger, and gathered
a supply of beans for future use, White again