The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-05-02

OF the moose River mine entOmoment
writes the second installment of his
tense narrative .oday.
BY DIR. d. E. ROBERTSON
HALIFAX, N. S.-Hav-
ing missed death in the
first unexpected move, we
found that the period of
most intense excitement
had passed. We were still
living, capable of rational
thought and action.
I was more than satisfied
with the quality of the two
men with whom l was ma
rooned. They had them
selves we'll in hand, and al
though tense and quiet,
did not lose grip on them
selves. From them | was
able to reap a large store of
confidence.
Magill asked me how long it
took a man to starve to death. T
told him there would be do diff
Guilty in going two or three weeks
without food, but that starvation
would not be a factor in this.
Other questions of a similar
nature were asked me, having to
do with the medical end of such
situations. We agreed that we
would have to establish ourselves
in a definite place, and that we
must do this while our lights still
lasted.
We counted on the lantern for
some ID hours, and on the miners
lamp for some shorter period. We
Immediately hit upon a plan of
building a fire in order to warm
and dry ourselves. It was very
cold. The absolute temperature
was not low-I fancy somewhere
in the 50s-but under the circum-
stances it seemed very cold.
WE shivered. freely, through
w fear and nervousness as well
as cold. I suggested that this was
a physiological reaction and that
we should not try to restrain these
shivers but to give them full rein,
and in this way stimulate circula-
ton and warm ourselves.
We searched for wood that was
burnable, and We found a small
box made of thin, soft wood which
had been sed for carrying dyna-
mite. just a little to the south
of the landing stage we pulled
big piece of fallen rock into a cir
cular position. 1t was about three
yards in diameter.
On this ALT, who had knife,
began to make splinters. While
he was engaged in this a large
piece of rock fell from the hang
ing wall and barely missed his
head. I got thrill when I saw
the calm manner in which he
pushed it out of his way.
We moved our burning stone to
a position under some timbering,
which protected us against any
more falling rock. We got the
fire started by using the miners
lamp. BY means of incessant
blowing, with our faces close down
to the fire, we were able to get
the fire alight and produce smoke.
We then realized that the
smoke was typical wood smoke
and that it would in all prob
ability seep through the crevices
of the rock and let the people on
the surface, by recognizing it's
character, realize that we were
still living and had built a fire.
4 q
NAAGILL and ALT wanted to
N1 smoke. but found that their
cigaretS were sodden and their
matches in like condition. We
kept our fire going a matter of is
hours, but it was only by dint of
continuous blowing by one or two
that it was kept alight at all.
1t was during this time, think,
that we all first complained of
numbness in the feet, which I
recognized as the beginning of
trench foot" particularly in my
case, as my shoes were not tight.
I suspected that Alf's boots were
laced too tightly.
Magill took the opportunity of
changing his socks, or at least
taking them off and trying to