Evening star., 1924-05-14

thoughts of his
mother, awaiting him at Cleburne,
Tex. His mother was uppermost in
his mind, he said, and IN the nso 1lackest t
lowing is Sergt. Haryeys story as
he told it to me:
I'VE left Chignik at about II o'clock
on the morning of April 30. Weather
hours flight to the west, the fog
seemed to drop around us, cutting
off all vision of earth and water,
and making it impossible to distin-
guish anything.
Through Binding Snow.
I'VE flew for the next thirty min
uteS by compass and instruments
The binding snowstorm and fog rem
dered the instruments all but useless
and as we lacked complete topo-
graphic data of the region, the read
ings of our altimeter were of little
value.
There were no dramatic prelimi-
naries to our crash into the noun
tain. We just simply crashed. 1t
was exactly twelve-thirty o'clock.
Trying to pull myself out of the
wreckage, 1 saw that the wings and
center section of the machine were
smashed in a hopeless tangle. l
thought Maj. Martin was gone. but
as l pulled myself up from the cock
pit. 1 saw Maj. Martin also emerging
and in one voice we asked, Are
you hurt?" Neither was injured.
Danger Not Realized.
After looking over the ship a few
minutes we sol ected a few personal
things, including our sca1t supply of
food, and started down the steep and
barren mountainside. Thinking we
werc near the Pacific coast, we head
cd in southerly direction, having
49,. a.
in.
Stumbling and cropping through the
dense fog. we were unable to see our
way more than a few feet ahead.
Finally. by using our compass. we de-
cided we were not getting toward the
coast, but walking in circles. / think
it was then that the first clear under
standing of the seriousness of our
plight came upon US. We returned to
the ship.
out of the splintered spruce and
parts of the pontoons Of the ship we
built a small fire. Then we Clipped
large pieces of ice out of the side of
the mountain to make windbreak on
the northwest side of the ship. as a
bitter wind was driving strongly from
the northwest and all but binding us
with snow.
supply. we tried to keeT 'lrselves
warm by stamping about 40 Hopping
our arms, occasionally crouching under
our buttress of ice to get moments
defense against the piercing wind.
Cold Baked sleep.
AT l o'clock in the morning we
decided to put on our flying equip
ment and try to get some sleep.
We crawled into the baggage com
partment, but were unable to sleep
on account of the cold At o'clock
we gave it up, neither of us having
had any sleep, and built fire and
melted the snow to get drinking
water. We intended to start for the
coast at daybreak, but it was i'm
possible to find our way on ac-
that day and night at the ship.
On the morning of May the fog
was still as bad as ever. We decided
to start at 5 am. We walked south
stream and continued on up the
mountain until it was impossible to
get any farther, so we returned back
to the stream and followed it west
ward until night. We camped on
alders on the snow without sleep
were afraid to continue northwest,
so we decided to retrace our steps
to the plane.
Harvey Gets Blinded.
Being snowblind myself and un-
able to see where to walk in order
to follow the major, made the return
trio very hard, but we reached the
ship after eight and one-half hours Of
hard walking, both of US being COM
pletely exhausted. We rested before
building a fire. After building the fire
we inspected our first aid kit, and
found some boric acid for our eyes,
and then retired for the night, spend
ing a very uncomfortable night in the
ship.
Make Final Start,
We got up early the next morning,
May 4, and after a short discussion
of our situation, decided to start for
the coast and not to return to the
ship this time, whether we made the
coast or did not make it. For about
tain, moving southeasterly until it was
impossible to go further. For the
first time, sun began to shine little.
BY using the field glasses, we located
q small lake which we determined
to be about ten miles southwest. We
decided to make it by night, but
having to go around mountains, we
were forced to tramp three miles
from the lake. On account of dark
ness, we made camp in a clump of
alderS where the snow was four feet
deep. We cut small limbs from the
bush to protect us from snow, and
gathered what wood we could, which
was very little. We made fire and
did not suffer very much from cold
that night, but we were fearful OF
bears, for there were many signs of
them.
Martins Eyes Affected.
Next morning. May 5, at 4:3o, we
continued toward the lake and reach
ed it about noon. but there was not
a sign of habitation. By this time
the majors eyes were in a bad con-
dition, and the course was left for
me to pick. He could just see well