Wadsworth semi-weekly dispatch. [volume] (Wadsworth, Nev.) 1899-1904, 1901-08-02
A MINER TELLS HOW
IT FEELS TO BE DEAD.

ally dead for a week, returned 10 lie
and vigor so he could tell about it.
He says he has realized fully every
sensation Of a man who perishes OF
thirst with the burning sunshine beat
ing down upon him. He was found
and resuscitated, but he had long pass
ed beyond the period of consciousness
before help came.
He was north of the Colorado and
was going to Arizona by way OF the
Virgin river and was shown the road.
When he got down into tn. valley
ne missed the trail but kept travelling
all that day and the following night.
Some time the next morning when
the sun got pretty hot and he was al
most exhausted, he stopped to make
some coffee, still having one canteen
Of water left. He vas holding his
mule by the bride when along came a
desert whirlwind and enveloped them,
frightening the mule, which dragged
him through a cactus plant. and break
ing away from him started back over
the trail. He followed the mule for
a couple of miles, then gave up the
chase and started toward the Vergin
river on foot and without water or any
thing else to save an ~unquenched thirst.
Just how long he wandered he does
not known. but before night he began
to get delirious and after that he re-
membered nothing except the hallu-
~cinations that passed through his mind
before he became unconscious. He
was, oh, 50 thirsty! 1t seemed like his
throat was literally onfire and he was
aching all over his body. He tried
every method he knew Of moisteniug
his throat, but the relief was but tenn
porary. He tore open the cactus
plant and everything that gave promise
Of containing the slightest bit Of moist
ure. but his thirst seemed to be an
ever increasing one. He could think
of nothing but water.
Finally, as his strength gave way,
pleasant dreams began to fit through
his mind. He fancied he saw the Nj
agara Falls and the vastness of the
great river that flows away over the
rapids below them. Then he seemed
to face the broad. expanse Of a great
fresh water lake. He could not see
across it. 1t looked SO cool and re-
freshing he could not restrain himself
and waded into it clear up to his neck.
Then he fancied he could feel fish
cavorting about his feet. and everything
seemed so peaceful. He was perfectly
happy and contsnted; did not know
whether he was alive or dead, and did
not care.
About a, week later when he recoV-
cred consciousness, he found himself
in the camp of some cattlemen who
had found him some hours after he lost
track of himself. His lips were swollen
and full Of cactus thorns where he had
chewed up the prlckly pear in his
desperate thirst. The cattlemen said
that when they found him ne was stark
naked, doubtless having disrobed and
thrown his clothes away when he fan
cied he was going down into the lake.
His fingers were raw and bleeding from
wounds made while digging in the sand
for water.
He says that the agony that comes
over one when he first begins to realize
that he is about to perish for water is
simply indescriblble, and it increases
every minute till he begins to lose con-
seriousness. But when the body gives
up the struggle the mind seems to be-
come unnaturally active in its efforts
to soothe by seemingly furnishing that
for which the body suffers, and the
final hours of the thirsty victim are
hours of sweetest anticipation.