The San Francisco call., 1897-07-13
Monte Cristo Miners
Awful Plunge Into
a CreVaSSe.
Snow Gives Way Beneath Him
While He Is Crossing a
Deep GulCh.
His Fall Checked on the Brink OF
an Abyss of Unfathomable
Depth.

SEATTLE, WASH, July 12.-P. J. Bald
win has had an experience that he Will
never forget, and about as narrow an
escape as q prospnctor ever had. He is
one of the oldest prospectors in the M onte
Cristo and Stillaguamish countries, and
knows every trail there. yet all this knowi-
edge did not keep him out OF crevasse
possibly thousands of feet deep while
crossing the range from Goat Lake TO
Monte Cristo early in the month. Here
after, in making the trip, Baldwin Will
come around by Barlow Pass, although
the journey is six miles longer than by
crossing very high range Of mountains
north of Monte Cristo, which separates
that camp from Goat Lake.
Baldwin was making good time over
TINS divide and was swinging along with
heavy stride over a field OF snow tnat GER
tainly looked as safe as paved street as
far as surface indications went. BALDWIN
knew from the place be was in that he
was crossing one Of the deepest gulches In
that section of the country.
Without an instants warming, without
a crack or sound, the snow fell away on
all sides of him and under him. He was
faling-falling he knew not whittier.
With the passing OF the light he lost
consciousness, so terri BILE were the sensa-
tions he experienced. 1t was perhaps ten
or fifteen minutes later when he aroused,
as if out OF terrible nightmare, but
facing an infinitely worse reality in the
walls of ice, impenetrable darkness and
an unknown depth OF thousands of feet
below him. He was on a narrow shelf
made by a horizontal crack in the ice, but
how far into the Crevasse he had fallen he
could not determine. No daylight showed
above, and a lighted match fell an in
credible d stance before burning out, ard
still it had not reached bottom. Chunks
of ice dropped over the shelf, ratified and
cracked for hundreds of feet until finally
broken into such small pieces that IN fall
ing they made no noise.
Baldwin thought he had staked out his
last claim, but he decided to at least
make try for life. He argued that fall
to the bottom with its immediate death
would be much better than a death by
slow starvation aud freezing by inches on
the shell. Taking off his boots, he started
up the side of the crevasse, the wooden
socks he wore giving him sure footing.
The crevasse was not quite three feet
wide, and, by putting a foot on either
wall, he was making excellent progress,
and had reached point where he could
almost see the top when a projection on
which he was standing cracked off and
fell with deafening noise to the bottom.
Again there was an awful falling, dying
sensation, but for second time the shelf
stopped his fall, and again be had to look
the situation in the face. The cold was
becoming almost unbearable and tue
darkness madd dening. He knew that if he
got out at all it must be at once, so he
commenced second painful trial.
By using much more care he finally
managed to reach the top and crawled out
on the snow utterly exhausted. 1t was a
long time before he could continue his
journey, but, after waiting several hours,
ne proceeded toward Monte Cristo, walk
ing without his boots, which he left in the
crevasse-how many feet down he does
not know. He arrived at Monte Cristo
almost wreck, so great had been the
strain on his nerves. Not even yet has he
entirely recovered from the experience.