El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-10-20
PAGS 9sNAD 10.

wall of rock on the right hand side
and ten feet above our heads. 1t was
caught and held fast on a point of rock.
We were both good deal startled by
the grewsome sight and had 1T been q
sailor with, me l know 1 should have
taken to my heels.
eve have a mystery here and must
solve it." said the professor as he re-
covered from his surprise. Let US get
the body down and make an fnvestiga-
ton
1t was neither q body nor q skeleton
The cold had preserved the flesh to q
certain extent, but the action of the
water running down the ravine had
also worn it away. The face was well
preserved, and the hair was as firm
as in life. 1t was the remains OF
man who had weighed perhaps 16G
pounds. but l had no difficulty in de-
taching it from the rock and lowering
1t down What remained of the cloth
Ing proved that the man had either
been fisherman or a sailor, but his
nationality could only be guessed at
AT some time or other" said the pro-
fessor as he looked about this ravins
has been a creek of considerable size
flowing down to the sea. This man
came up the creek from the beach, but
we now find wall of Ice blocking IL
up The ice has formed since he
rame. There should be a boat frozen
up in the wall between us and the
sea"
We had nothing to make a torch OF.
and. retracing our steps TO point
4 l. %
vine, we left the mystery to be solved
another day There was much discus
sion around the campfires that even
ing. and early next morning we set out
TO see if the ravine had once upon q
time opened to the sea We soor
found that it had. Its mouth had been
I'm a small bay, but storm had filled
il with powders and damned back the
waters flowing down Between the
sea and the spot where we found the
body the Ice was from 30 to 40 feet
thick. If the sun melted it for few
feet in the summer, the rains and
SHOWS of winter speedily replaced
what had been lost. We found this
ice as clear as glass and as hard az
iron, but powder was brought from
the brig, and holes were drilled, and in
a
a great rift TO half its depth
Everybody had Il suspicion of what
was frozen in down there, but yet the
discovery gave us shock. When but
80 feet of ice lay between us and the
bottom of the ravine could see
through il we'll enough to make out
the hull of n ship standing on an even
keel 1t was the hull Of brig. wish
maStS gone. but otherwise intact We
could even make our the ropes which
had been frozen stiff as iron whiia
they Strcamed along her decks. but
there were no bodies OF dead men in
Sight. To blast out the remaining.
depths OF ice and clear the ravinc WIS
task requiring more aid than we
could spare and more powder than We
had aboard We had TO he content
with what we could see.
Years before--perhaps half a century
"a merchant vessel had made that
little bay in distress Wave and tide
had carried her up to the creek. and
wave and tide had blocked her exit
Then she began to freeze in No man
can say how long it took for the ice to
bury her until il was a solid mass 81
feet above her decks. but decades musc
have passed If one Of her crew got
away up to the ravine why not all OF
them? And yet no other body OF re-
mains We're to be found on the island,
This man, who may have been the cap
tain, probably started out by himself
to see If there was Il chance Of escape.
but in making his way up the ravins
he persisted of cold and hunger. There
was scarce a hope for the others. L:
they left the hulk they were forced to
return 10 it for shelter and food. There
came day when food and fuel were
when avalanches of snow
covered the decks and the cold of win
ter froZe the marrow OF their bones
and they hid away in forecastle and
cabin and died with open eyes staring
into the darkness Upon our return
TO London the case was reported and
made much of in the papers but no
government or individual has ever
gone farther than we did. hulk lies
here full of dead men-a hulk which
sailed the waters OF the frozen seas,
IA a century ago. and there it will!
lie until time is no more and chaos
'eigns again. 1t might be blasted out
,ut of what use? The solving of one
MYSTERY of the sea more or less would
'ount for but little.