Los Angeles herald., 1908-03-07
A AVALON MEN
DARE DEATH
IN DESCENT
DROP 1900 FEET OVER FATAL
PREClPICE
BODY OF TOURIST RECOVERED
BY ISLANDERS
Hazardous Feat by Three Catalina
Guides Said to Be Without Prece.
dent-corpse Lowered
Into Boat

Special to The Herald fBy Wireless rele-
graph.
AVALON, March 6.-Descending 1900 feet
on their hands and knees to recover the
body OF dead man, with ropes tied around
their waists. their fingers cIutchine to tbe
Jagged walls of almost perpendicular
cliff 1000 feet high, and with n deem sen
pounding the steep wall beneath them. three
Catalina island men yesterday afternoon
undertook one of the msot periIous descents
and climbs in the history of the island.
On narrow shelf of rock hundreds
OF feet below them and 400 feet above
the sea lay the badly mangled and de-
composed body of the long missing
guest of the Hotel Metropole, L. l..
watson, whose corpse for over week
had been lying on the rocky ledge
Where 1t had fallen from height of
Ilo0 feet while he was attempting to
scale promontory to it's summit
The sun was beating down upon the
body-for 1t was hot day at the island
yesterday-and the brows of the cour-
ageous trio who slowly slid down on the
l2Ou-foot ropes to recover it were drip-
ping with perspiration. They were
stripped of all superfluous clothing.
and yet long before they reached the
body their scanty raiment was wet. and
their hands and feet were torn and
bruised by the jagged projections and
sharp edged ledges down which they
were forced to descend-some of which
were so sharp that it was feared the
heavy ropes would be worn in two be-
fore the return to the top had been
completed
1t was feat never to be forgotten
hXy f11a -.
height of 1900 feet looked down, almost
straight, toward the dead body, with
the sea beneath it.
The three men made the descent to-
gether, carrying with them a couple of
heavy sacks in which to place the
body,
Scene of Daring Feat
The ledge on which the body rested
was at point known as the Devils
SIDE, IN Silver canyon, near Avalon.
and is known to all who have visited
Catalina island as one of the most dam
gerous precipices ON that notoriously
formidable beach bluff which frowns
down on the sea for almost the entire
length of the island, facing south and
east.
The three men who performed the
daring feat included two of the men who
discovered the body Thursday These
biSi dtC SuloeS ildlIlGu DuIldD anu
l.. Edwards, and were accompanied by
another guide named Harry Houghton.
They are considered men of cool nerve
and unusual prowess, well selected for
the trying task, as they proved yester-
day.
The men were over half an hour maxi
ing the descent, and only the greatest
determination could have nerved them
for the undertaking. Most of the dis
tance was made by hanging on to the
scanty projections, as they were slowly
lowered by the men above, who at
times could see none of the three men
and were forced to guess as to how
slowly to allow the great coil of hemp.
on which the lives of the men were de-
pending, to uncoil but fortunately ex-
cept for few bruises and decorations
the brave reScuerS were not injured.
Cool heads and nerves were required
by the men who held the ropes at the
top of the precipice, as well as by the
guides, for it was almost impossible to
venture near the edge on account of
the corrosive weakness of the upper
stratum.
The men who held the long ropes
were guided in their work only by one
other who lay upon his stomach, with
his eyes riveted upon his stomach. with
when they were not swinging in mid
air under an intervening shelf or ledge,
and who thus engineered the hazardous
descent.
Men bangle Like Spiders
Foot by foot, until the three Zen
seemed to the group above like mere
spiders dangling on webs in the sun
light below, the guides swung down
till they reached the body on the ledge.
They found it terribly deeomposed and
mangled, and the task of putting 1t in
the sacks was not "a pleasant one.
This finally done, the guides placed
a rope around it and lowered the re-
mains into boat-the Zeus-which had
been moored under the shelf in posi-
ton to receive it.
One of the guides then was lowered
by his companions into the boat, and
rowed with the remains to a point
where the others could reach it.
After this was done the perilous as
cent of the -emaining two men began.
They were drawn up much more slowly
and carefully than had been necessary
when they descended, and every atom
of their nerve-of which there was an
exceptional amount-was called into
service during that slow and tedious
as well as dangerous climb back to the
summit of the precipice.
Brave hands elung tenaciously to the
ropes; sore feet guided their bodies
from the rocks, and strong hands
above pulled patiently and surely at
the ropes, while the waists of the two
were cut and swollen by the
heavy cords.
Watson, the dead man. came to his
death over a week ago. He was
guest at the Hotel Metropole, and had
gone into the hills for a mountain
climb, such as Avalon tourists often
indulge in, when the accident which
cost him his life occurred
From the seaboard the mountains of
Catalina island do not appear very con-
fusing or formidable, but when ex-
plored on foot it is found that their
height and treachery are greater than
surmised.
Watson evidently lost his way, or
wandered from the regular, well beaten
tvontlnued on Page Twol