Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 March 1873 — Four Men Float on a Lake Superior Ice Island for Nearly a Week. [ARTICLE]

Four Men Float on a Lake Superior Ice Island for Nearly a Week.

About the 4th of January last, four Shebandowan gold employers, named Thomas Watson, George Fisher, Edward Linder and Henry Zeck, started for a point on the Canadian shore below Thunder Bay, to cross the lake to Isle Royal. The ice was supposed to be three or four feet in thickness, and they felt perfectly safe in undertaking the journey. Unfortunately they made little or no provision for the trip, each supposing that the other had a plentiful supply of bread and pork in his pack- They leisurely walked along on their course until nearly nightfall, when it was proposed they should sup. On opening their sacks and spreading their blankets on the ice, it was discovered that but three of them had any food whatever, and these three had but about four pounds of bread and a pound and a half of boiled beef between them. _ However, they divided up their stock and made a tolerable meal, expecting to reach their destination next morning. What was left of the repast, consisting of a slice of meat, half an inch thick and about the size of a man’s hand, and two small loaves, were gathered up and the four walked on their journey, the night being clear and the weather calm. Toward morning, however, one of them, George Fisher, gave out, and they concluded to take a rest So they laydown and, after conversing awhile fell asleep. When they awoke the sun was shining brightly, but there was considerable wind blowing and the air was piercingly cold. Fisher continuing to evince signs of illness, they partly resolved to retrace their steps, but on walking northward for about some twenty miles, to their uttet astonishment and dismay, they discoveredthat the ice-cake on which they were was surrounded by open water on all sides, in fact that they were on an island of ice, some ten miles in circumference, as near as they could judge. Fears of their safety now took possession of them, ana in their agony they cried aloud for relief. But no one heard their voices. Night was fast approaching, a‘hd with it came a swifter and colder wind than that which had been blowing all day. Penned in, as it were, and beyond the possibility of human aid, their mental sufferings were terrible, for they beheld death staring them in the face; but, added to these, came the pinching anguish of hunger. » Fisher, who had once been “castaway" on the ocean, and who appeared to be suffering from a raging fever, was the only one at this stage of existence who appeared to realize the necessity of husbanding jto the last what little they had in the way of eatables. He suggested that, as there were four of them in a bad scrape, it would be right and proper that the bread and meat should be divided into four equal parts and that then each 'man should subdivide his allowance into six portions which, if they used but one portion a day, would sustain life for nearly a week. His argument told on his companions in distress, and they acquiesced. The bread and meat were there-, fore cut up into four parts, and then each separated his share into moieties. By mutual consent they resolved not to eat anything till next morning; and-sor,, rowfully they spread their blankets on the cold ice mid lay, down. Worn out with cold, hunger and fatigue, they soon fell into a sound slumber, from which they were aroused about daylight by the thunder-like sound caused by the cracking of the ice.

About eight o’clock in the morning, this being the third day they were put;, they ate their “breakfast” in silence, the meal'consisting of about a mouthful of bread and a piece of beef about the' size of a ten-cent piece, and as thin as a wafer. Their feelings, as they gazed at each other, can better be imagined than described. They observed on close inspection that the mass of ice on which they were was being moved northwestwardly, and their hopes, revived. I£ waa likewise getting colder, and they begun to feel assured that the open space between them and the main body of the Jfce would soon freeze over. But these hope's were of short duration, fox, daring the approach of night, the wind veered around and blew their island westward. They were strong-hearted men, though, and Fisher, whose fever had left him, cheered them on and roused them up. Indeed, his courage was astonishing under the circumstances, and stood in bold contrast with the others who, without him, would have lain down and died from sheer helplessness.

That day and the two following were spent in vain lamentations at the hardness of their fate and wishes to be on shore, but nb shore was in sight, and the sun went down and darkness came upon them. On the morning of the sixth, day, Fisher, who may be saijj,, to be the only one among them who had ever before been in teal danger, suddenly threw his cap into the air and astonished them by yelling “Land ho!’’ as he pointed to the northward. They all looked with straißed eyes, and, sure enough, there it was, about eight or ten miles off. They immediately started for it on the double-quick, and in three or four hours stepped ashore St S point about six miles below a small stream emptying into the lake some ten miles east of Pigeon River. Once safe on land,i the saved men became cheerful, and made their way down the lake to a hut occupied by a half-breed trapper, named Walla, who kindly furnished them with coffee and food. After remaining with him for over a week to regain their exhausted strength, the party made their way eastward. —Duluth llerald.

A Juvenile Elopement.— Wright Johnson, a boy of six years, and Bertha Sykes, a girl of five years, arrived by a train of the St* Louis, Kansas City & Northern Railway at the Biddle street depot at 6 o’clbck last night. They were recognized as having come from St. Charles, afcd on being questioned they said they had stepped on the train of their own accord, and had run away to get married. The boy is a son of Dr. Johnson, of Bt. Charles, Mo. The parents 1 were informed by telegraph of what had occurred, and the romantic couple were sent home by the 715” train, in charge of the conductor -Bt. Low* Democrat.