The Washington herald., 1921-01-13
By AGAPIT CLERMoNT.

BY AGAPIT CLERmONT.
Copyright, 1921, BY Star Co. and Universal
Service.)
MATTICE, Ont, Jan. 12.-The first
complete account Of the wild ad-
ventures of the three American avi-
ators, Lieuts. Kloor, Farrell and
Hinton, was given to me last Sun
day afternoon. nifty miles out on the
Missinabi River trail, while the res
cued aerOnauts were seated on the
moor of an Indian cabin.
Lieut.. KlOOr, commander of the
party, told the story from the take
of at ROckaway Point down to the
moment of our meeting. With his
companions at intervals nodding as
sent, he gave this vivid account Of
their record breaking trip:
Wind Mild at Start.
We left Rockaway at p. m
December Is. There was a mild
wind. west by north. when we left.
We did not expect to make over 100
miles.
We flew directly over New York.
When the storm hit US we were
above the storm and could judge II
1t was impracticable to land in such
a wind for fear that the whole crew
might be killed.
Tuesday morning We were up
about 5000 feet and could not see
any signs of civilization. During
the day we encountered severe snow
storms, expended all our sand bal
last, and got together all equipment
available for emergency ballast.
The hydrogen was ten days old.
and had very poor lift. Farrell and
Hinton say they will never forget
those boUnces and they were quite
put up when we hit the trees, as
this was quite a novelty to them.
as they were seaplane men. At 10
o'clock Tuesday the sun came oU:
and expanded the gas and helped to
maintain our altitude. This was the
first sun seen in twenty-five hours.
About l o'clock we thought We
saw a house amongst the never
ending forest and we heard plainly
the barking of a dog, so we thought
We had better land as this was a
sign of civilization.
A rather rough landing was
made in two instaIlments among
some tall spruce trees. We carried
compass. three carrier pigeons
and flying suits. We were in a
strange. wooded country. We were
uncomfortabIy cold and wet since
the night before, and our march
was very slow.
Had Summer Uniform.
We ate nothing that night. None
of US slept by the fire We built. We
heard wolf hOwIs all night and the
rvvO succeeding nights.
We decided to have pigeon for
breakfast on Wednesday.
We marched all day, Lieut.. Hin
ton leading the march and check
ing the course by the compass. I
followed with the provisions. Far
relI brought up the rear. Occasion
ally il was necessary to stop and
warm ourselves and to gain new
Put Grass Fuel Next Skin.
We had to pick grass and put
il next to our skin to dry it for
uriminE the fire. Luckily 1 had Slip
ped a box Of safety matches n my
pOcket and We only once used a
second match. We were so careful
about them.
Two packages of cigarettes stood
US in lieu of food No sign OF human
life was s,en during that day and
things began to look dull.
We ate nothing that night and
sat uD near the fire, plotting and
manning. We built a bed ouc OF
spruce tips. a moose kept CirCIing
around our fire calling without
cease. and kept us on our nerves
ends listening. We wished we had
Il gun that night as we needed both
meat and rest. Farrell and Hinton
some sleep. Hinton lay down near
the fire and Farrell lay on the other
side Of him to keep him warm.
The cold was intense beyond de-
scription. My watch stopped and
we decided to set it by daybreak.
but we did not figure on daybreak
starting up there at $50 in the
morning.
Thursday the 18th we started out.
Al noon we ate the second pigeon.
dividing it like the first. To vary
the menu we ate moss.
TO tantalize us we saw numerous
partridge. They seemed quite tame,
but our attempts TO kill some with
stones failed utterly. To do away
with the pigeon cage. which weigh
cd several pounds, I wrung the neck
Of the third bird and put it in the
pocket of my flying suit.
a timber jack snowbird flew
within range. and I saw the vision
Of a meal. He few up before I got
TO him. Lieut.. Hinton, seeing the
bird flying away and not knowing
that 1 had the third pigeon stored
away in my flying suit. thought our
third meal was gone, and was quite
peeved for what he thought was
carelessness.
Night Most Miserable.
The third night was a miserable
one. which lowered our spirits. We
sat around a fire and spoke of our
people and the hopelessness of the
situation. Lieut.. Hinton had kept
I'D our spirits all the time with his
bunch that We would strike some
thing on the third day, and the third
day had gone by and We seemed no
Farfher ahead