Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 98, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 August 1903 — TROUT-FISHING ADVENTURES. [ARTICLE]

TROUT-FISHING ADVENTURES.

Narrow Escape from Diath Beneath a Trap In a Jam of Logi. On one occasion, in northern Michigan, I was trout fishing in company with a veteran timber cruiser, a man who kitesy everything about the rough bush life. In time we reached a bend in the stream where a lot of small logs hod jammed during the spring freshet. My comrade unconcernedly ventured upon the logs, and before I could follow, by some mischance, he stepped upon a loose one and Instantly disappeared. Had I not been looking at him it Is likely I should have imagined he had crossed and gone into the brush upon the farther side. One log of all the mass was rolling, and 1 a hand showed at one side of It To dart across and seize the hand occupied a very few seconds, but to my horror, I could not pull him up through the narrow space through which he had slipped.

To set a foot upon the log either side the opening and shove with all strength was the only hope. For seconds I clung to the wrist and strained mightily. Slowly the logs separated and up be came till he was able to twist upon his stomach across a log. Half-drowned as he was, he had not lost his nerve. “Do—don’t let ’em squeeze back on me!” he gasped, and a moment later he was on his feet. Most men would have weakened then, but he was iron, says the narrator, Edwin Sandys, in the World's Work. He had swallowed a lot of water; had been cheek by Jowl with an awful death, yet he had no Idea of proving false. The logs were slowly slipping farther apart and I-was standing like a certain large gentleman of Rhodes, and unable to stand much more spreading or to spring to either side, while, of course, to slip Into the water meant to enter the trap he had Just escaped. In a few seconds he seized my hand, and one quick haul carried me to firm footing. The logs at once closed like a gigantic trap. When we reached solid ground my comrade almost collapsed, and for half an hour he was a very sick man. Later he said: “F field my breath ns long as I could, calculatin’ you might try to get at me, an’, pardner, I’ll never forget that little turn. I reckon I was in a mighty tight place.’ *