Evening star., 1924-03-16

in swimming. thrust out my arms
above my head and actually won't
through some sort of motions Of
swimming on my back.
Beneath the surface of the snow,
with nothing to inform the senses of
the world outside it, had no i'm
preston Of speed after the first ac-
celeration. j struggled in the tum-
bling snow, unconscious of every
thing else, until, perhaps, only a few
seconds later, I knew the pace was
easing up. | felt an increasing pres
sure about my body. Il wondered
how tightly 7 should be squeezed.
Then the avalanche came to rest.
Ny arms were free: my legs were
near the surface. After brief
struggle I was standing again. sur
prised and GREATNESS, in the motion
less snow. But the rope was tight
at mys waist. The porteritied on next
me, supposed. must be deeply buried
To my further surprise, he quickly
emerged, unharmed as myself. Som
ervell and Crawford. too, though they
had been above me by the ropes
length. were now quite close, and
soon extricated themselves. We sub
seQuently made out that their expert
ences had been very similar to mine
But where were the rest? Looking
Gown over the foam OF snow. we saw
one group Of porters some little dis
Presumably the others must be buried
somewhere betWe cen us and them, and
though no sign OF these missing men
appeared, we at once prepared to find
and dig them out. The porters we
saw still stood their ground instead
OF coming up to help.
We soon made out that they were
the party who had been Immediately
behind Us, and they were pointing be-
low them. They had travelled farther
than us in the avalanche, presumably
because they were nearer the center
where it was moving more rapidly
The other two parties, one of four
and one of five men, roped together
must have been carried even farther
We could still hope that they were
safe.
But as we hurried down we soon
saw that beneath the place where the
four porters were standing was a
formidable drop. 1t was only toe
plain that the missing men had been
swept over it. We had no difficulty
in finding a way round this obstacle.
In q very short time we were stand
ing under its shadow. The ice cliff
frSrf - i~t ~ frvl, -
different places. The crevasse at its
foot was more or less filled up with
avalanche snow.
OUR fears were soon confirmed
~ One man was quickly uncovered
and found to be still breathing. Be-
fore long we were certain that he
would live. Another whom we dug
out near him had been killed by the
fall. He and his party appeared to
have struck the hard lower lip Of the
crevasse and were lying under the
snow on the edge OF II.
The four porters who had escaped
soon pulled themselves together after
the first shock of the accident, and
now worked hero with Crawford and
did everything they could to extH-
cate other bodies, while Somervell
and i went down into the crevasse.
A loop of rope which we pulled up
convinced us that the other party
must be here.
1t was slow work loosening the
snow with the pick or adze OF an ice
axe and shoveling it with the hands.
But we were able to follow the rope
to the bodies. One was dug up life
less. Another was found upside down
and when we uncovered his face Som
ervell thought he was still breathing.
We had the greatest dimculty in ex-
Treating this man, SO tightly was the
snow packed about his limbs. His
load, four oxygen cylinders on a
steel frame, had to be cut from his
back, and eventually he was dragged
out. Though buried for about forty
minutes, he had survived the fall and
the suffocation and suffered no sen-
GUS harm. =
OF the two others in this party OF
four we found only one. We had 81
length to give up a hopeless search
with the certain knowledge that the
first of them to be swept over the
cliff and most deeply buried must
long ago be dead OF the other Eve
all tho bodies were recovered, but
only one was alive Tho two who
had so marvelously escaped were able
to walk down to camp III, and were
almost perfectly we'll next day, The
| seven othsrs were killed
| The tragic calamity was naturally
| the end OF the third attempt to clint
! Mnnnf Everest. The surviving por.