The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-07-26
PLUCK SAVED HIS LIFE.
An Exciting Incident of the Opening of
 the Yukon.

An Exciting Incident of the Opening Of the Yukon.
 The upheaval of the ice that binds the Yukon is always fascinating and eXclt- ing, but no greater and more spectacu-
 lor scene in connection with the break ing has been chronicled than that at Five Fingers rapids several days ago. The high, rocky pillars that stand as bal riers at the rapids choked with ice, and for days sustained weight Of hundreds of thousands of tons of ice and blockaded with water, which, when it broke, tore through the gorge with terrific force and at speed of thirty
 miles an hour in widest tumult All the rocky barriers that form the
 channel and the Fingers" were sus-
 tafning5ar untold weight of ice and wa
 ter. gathered there as the result of the flow of days from the upper Yukon. The water spread far up the stream, and threatened to overflow the banks, and there Is no telling what might have been the result had not the Government blasted the keystone of ice from the lower portion and opened the gorge. S Captain Jack Williams, of the White
 Pass Company, fired the charge which opened the jam. He was standing in front of the Fingers" and yet on a piece of ice when the telling shot was fired. With unexpected suddenness the great mass of blocked matter forced the situation, and Williams was sent sWirling down the stream before the cracking, maddening tumult of escap- ing waters and chaotic ice foes. For tunately, he was swept to the base of l one of the cliffs. and there found a mar | row niche in which to cling He seized 1 the projecting wall and sprung to the | niche. and with his back turned to the bluff and facing the wild procession of | the elements, he stood in fear and l trembling. One solid hour he stood on 1 that rock, and the grinding. crunching and plunging ice went past him in mer- ciless roar
 Williams fellows had gone to the lower end of the rapids, expecting to see him on some ice foes far down the stream, or, perhaps, most likely, not to see him at all. Walter Wensky Ger
 man Consul at Dawson. happened along at that time. and, with strong field glass, scanned the canon. Wensky went up stream instead of down. and soon located him in the niche.
 The roaring of the rushing ice and water through the rocky gorge made it impossible to hear anyone speak in the
 vicinity where Williams stood and be heard It was all men could do to hear one another when they stood together. The tremendous force of miles of ice and water above the Fingers was
 driving the water through the gorge at
 the hurricane speed of thirty miles an
 hour. It was one wild, plunging race,
 of which Consul Wenslsy says:
 Never in my life had seen such a spectacle of grandeur. such a magnif- cent demonstration of natures physical forces exerting their awful power. If
 ever there was scene awe-inspiring in
 its effect on man, this was one. 'There being no time to lose in an ef-
 fort to save Williams, we rushed up the
 river, and after travelling some distance came to where we could shout across to
 wood camp. A man named Ebo was
 there, and he heard us. We told him of the predicament and he took a rope and
 went to the rescue. The line was made fast and dropped fifty feet over the
 bluff. It fell within the reach of Will
 Hams and he seized it. A few seconds
 later he was dangling from the line
 and swinging in nid-air fas he des-
 perately fought and climbed for life.
 The struggle did not last long. Muscu-
 lar and active that he was, Williams
 soon sealed the cliff and was safe.
 "The intensity of that grand escapine
 flood and jam thrills me yet. The ice
 was four hours passing through the
 gorge. It was swollen to fifteen feet
 above the normal level of the river as
 it made it's escape, and went on plung-