The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1907-10-23


frail, unsteady float into the stream,
which, at this time, was very high
and turbulent. A few rods below us
was a large sawyer, swaying to and
fro, and rising up and down In the
river. We discussed the probability
Of coming in contact with this for
midable enemy before we showed out
and thought we could avoid it, and
used our utmost endeavors to do so.
But II we had pulled directly for 1t
with all our might, we could not have
struck 1t more directly, or with more
disastrous consequences than we did.
The force Of the current carried
us to it. in spite of all our efforts
to the contrary.
AS soon as we struck the sawyer,
Selling my gun, l leaped from the raft
upon it, in order to avoid fall
ing into the river. The raft
floated around and moved down the
river. l called to Davis to land and
help me off, but it was impossible
for him to do so, and he replied that
he could not to save both our lives"
In a few moments his raft swept
around the bend of the river, watch
ed him with beating heart. He waved
his hat to me as he passed out of
sight, and never saw him again.
My condition, then, was indeed fear
full There was no human habita-
ton that l knew of within an hun
bred miles of me, and / had no hopes
of assistance from any one. Think
ing, possibly, some one might be
| within my hearing, / endeavored to
fire off my gun, but the powder was
wet and it would not strike. My
next effort, of course, was to reach
the shore, and at the same time to
secure my gun. l was some five or
six rods from the bank, but l was
afraid 1 could not reach 1t with my
gun in my hand, so twisted some
twigs and branches of the trees, with
in my reach, through the guard of the
gun and around the small of the
stock, and having secured it in the
best manner that 1 could, l plunged
into the river and SWAMI &c the shore.
After reaching the shore my
next object was to get posses
ion of my gun. To do this l made
raft of such logs as could get
together in the river, lashing them
together by grapevines. l then cut
me a long vine, and tying one end
of 1t to the shore and the other
to the raft, / showed out into the
river, holding on to the vine, think
| ing that the current would drift me
down to the sawyer, and having re-
covered my gun, l could pull back to
the shore by the vine, but unfortu-
nately the vine was not quite long
enough for the raft to strike the saw
yer. | reached forward and caught
the branches and pulled, in order to
reach my gun, which was within a
few feet of my hand, but the cur
rent was so strong that it sunk my
raft, so that ! was compelled to let
go. Holding on to the vine, the cur
rent of the river swung myself and
the raft slowly to the shore. l could
get no more vines to lengthen the
one that / already had, so l tried
the second time to reach my gun
in the same way, but with the same
success. A third and a fourth time
did 1 float around with the hope Of
reaching it, but was each time dis
appointed; still my gun was swing
ing by the twigs.
By this time 1t was growing dark,
and | determined to camp for the
night and renew my efforts in the
morning to obtain possession of my
gun, for it seemed to me that my
"stay in life" depended upon the
recovery of this faithful companion,
that hung so tantalizlngly before my
eyes, and yet not within my reach.
struck fire and made my camp
between two rocks, and here | spent
the night very small portion Of
1t, however, in sleep. During por-
ton of the night / was engaged in
drying my powder. This / did by
holding the horn to the fire until it
became warm, and then shaking the
powder about until 1t became cool
and continued this process until
my powder was dry. then laid down
to rest, but my sleep was disturbed
by desperate visionary attempts to
get my gun. Once. indeed, succeed
ed in reaching 1t, and my joy was so
great that / was awakened and be-
held by the moonlight my gun still
hanging by the branches of the trees
on the sawyer. Slowly and heavily