The Savannah morning news., 1902-08-21
PLUCK SAVED HIS LIFE.
An Exciting Incident of the Opening
of the Yukon.

OF une ukOns
From the st. Louis Globe-Democrat.
The upheaval of the ice that binds
the Yukon is always fascinating and
exciting, but no greater and more
spectacular scene in connection with
the breaking has been chronicled than
that at Five Fingers rapids several
days ago. The high, rocky pillars that
stand as barriers at the rapids choked
with ice and for days sustained a
weight of hundreds of thousands of
tons of ice and blockaded water,
which, when it broke, tore through the
gorge with terrific force and at speed
of thirty miles an hour in widest tu
multi.
All the rocky barriers that form the
channel and the Fingers" were sus-
tanning an untold weight of ice and
water gathered there as the result of
the flow of days from the Upper Yu-
kon. 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.
Capt 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
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 water and chaotic ice foes. For
tunately, he was swept TO the base of
one of the cliffs, and there found a
narrow niche in which to cling. He
seized the projecting wall and sprung
to the niche, and with his back turned
to the bluff and facing the wild process
sion of the elements, he stood in fear
and trembling. One solid Aour he
stood on that rock, and the grinding,
crunching and plunging ice went past
him in merciless 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 al Dawson, happened along
at that time, and. with a 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
1t impossible to hear anyone speak in
the vicinity where William stood and
be heard. 1t was all men could do to
hear one another when they stood to-
gether. The tremendous force of miles
of ice and water above the Fingers"
was driving the water through the
gorge at the hurricane speed of &c
miles an hour. 1t was one wild. plung-
ing race, of which Consul Wensky
says:
Never in my life had 1 seen such
a spectacle of grandeur, such a mag
nificent demonstration of natures ply
steal forces exerting their awful pow
er. If ever there was a scene awe-in-
spring in its effect on man, this was
one.
There being no time to lose in an
effort to save Williams. we rushed UP
the river. and after travelling some
distance came to where we could shout
across to a wood camp. A man named
Edo was there, and he heard us. We
told him of the predicament and he
took rope and went to the rescue
The line was made fast and dropped
so feet over the bluff. 1t fell within
the reach of Williams and he seized It,
A few seconds later he was dangling
from the line and swinging in mid-air
as he desperately fought and climbed
for life. The struggle did not last long.
Muscular and active that he was, Will
liams soon scaled the cliff and was
safe.
1.-The intensity of that grand escap-
ing flood and jam thrills me yet. The
ice was four hours passing through
the gorge. 1t was swollen to Is feet
above the normal level of the river as
it made its escape, and went on plung-
ing and grinding with the fury of
monster. Far below the rapids the riv-
er travelled at great speed, cutting
away in the distance around bends of
the stream with the white mailed tur-
bulent crest as far as the eye could
reach, running until finally worn out
and exhausted miles away"