Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1900-11-09

sailor. with me know I should have

Da1lOr Win me = Know 0n0uAO 0dVO4
taken to my heels. +. z.S. s4.3 81.
"We 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 investiga-
ton"
1t was neither body nor q skeleton.
The cold had preserved the flesh to
certain extent, but the action of the
water running down the ravine had
also worn it away. The face was we'll
preserved, and the hair was as Arm
as in life. 1t was the remains of
man who had weighed perhaps 16O
pounds. but had no difficulty in de"
taching it from the rock and lowering
it down. What remained Of the cloth
ing proved that the man had either
been a fisherman or sailor, but his
nationality could only be guessed at.
"At some time or other" said the pro-
lessor as he looked about, this ravine
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 zee blocking it
up. The ice has formed sine he
came. There should be boat fir, CA
up in the wall between us and the
sea-
We had nothing to make torch Of,
| and, retracing our steps to point
where we could climb out of the ra-
vine, we left the. mystery to be solved
another day. There was mucil discus
sion around the campfres that even
| ing, and early next morning we set out
| to see if the ravine had once upon a
| time opened to the sea. We soon
| found that it had. Its mouth had been
| in small bay, but storm had filled
it with powders and damned back the
waters flowing down. Between the
sea and the spot where we found the
body the ice was from so to 20 feet
| thick. If the sun melted it for few
! feet in the summer, the rains and
J SHOWS of winter speedily replaced
what had been lost. We found this
ice as clear as glass and as hard as
iron, but powder was brought from
the brig, and holes were drilled, and in
a couple of days we had blasted out
| g. great rift to half its depth.
| Everybody had a 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 we could see
through it we'll enough to make out
the hull of ship standing on an even
keel. 1t was the hull Of brig, with
masts gone, but otherwise intact. We
could even make out the ropes which
had been frozen stiff as iron while
they streamed along her decks, but
there were no bodies Of dead men in
sight. To blast out the remaining
depths of ice and clear the ravine was
a task requiring more aid than we
could spare and more powder than we
had aboard. We had to be content
with what we could see.
| Years before-perhaps half 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 it was a solid mass 60
feet above her decks, but decades must
have passed. If one of her crew got
! away up to the ravine why not all Of
them? And yet no other body or re-
mains were to be found on the island.
! This man, who ma lave been the cap
tain. probably started out by himself
! to see If there was a chance of escape.
but in making his way up the ravine
he persisted Of cold and hunger. There
was scarce hope for the others. II
they left the hulk they were forced to
return to it for shelter and food. There
came day when food and fuel were
exhausted, 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
there full of dead men-a hulk which
sailed the waters Of the frozen seas
half century ago. and there it will
lie until time is no more and chaos
reigns again. 1t might be blasted out,
but of what use? The solving of one
mystery Of the sea more or less would
count for but little.
! The Proper Way to Eat.
/ rooorf roooofinr ~ von1i1o1 voov,