A JOCKEY'S ADVENTURE IN THE SNOW.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9763, 26 June 1897, Page 8

A JOCKEY'S ADVENTURE IN THE SNOW.

The Omeo correspondent of the Melbourne Argus, writing on the Bth inst. says :—Two extraordinary snow adventures have just occurred here, and the men concerned are now in the hospital. On May 26th Frank Crocker, a well-known Gippsland jockey, left here for the Dargo races, which took place on the following day. A few hours after leaving he stopped at a digger's hut on the Upper Livingston, and had some tea and toast, refusing an invitation to stop all night, It was raining as he left the hut, and when he had gone about three miles further the snow came down so heavily that the track was covered. Croker turned back, with the intention of making the hut, but he utterly lost himself, and for nine days he wandered round the wild Sugarmat country leading his horse. The Sugarmat is the plateau between here and Dargo, and'it stands at an elevation of from 4000 ft to 5000 ft. It is the roughest country hereabouts, and i» usually heavily covered with snow at this time of the year. Day after day he wandered, sleeping at night in any hollow tree before a small fire made of bark, leaves, and such branches as he could mill down, for the . snow was so thick that he could not find any fallen timber. He burrowed under the snow, and pulled grass for his horse, but he had nothing for himself. One night, numbed with the cold, and exhausted from hunger, he rolled into the fire, and did not -recover himself until his clothes had been badly burned. On the ninth day (Friday last) as he was wandering along leading his horse, the poor animal failing at times from weakness,' he heard voices, and presently he saw two little girls. The children, however, ran away frightened when they saw his lamentable appearance, but when Croker called out, " Ob, for God's sake, stop ; I am lost," the girls waited for him, and led him to Box's Hotel, on the main road between here and Bright. From the time he left the hut on the Upper Livingston on the evening of May 26th until he reached Box's Hotel on June 4th Croker .declares that he had no other nourishment than water and an occasional mouthful of snow. Mrs Box made him some beef tea, and nursed him as carefully as possible, and, also apprised the police, On Sunday Dr. Fenton and Trooper Strain went out, and brought Croker into the hospital, where he is doing well, considering his severe privations. He is emaciated and exhausted, and his feet have suffered much, both from wear and tear and from frost and scorching, for, to keep them warm, he used to thrust them into tho ashes of his fires. Croker - practice of wasting, which he often resorted to to keep his weight down, seems to have stood him in good stead, as he was enabled to go nine days without food. Dr. Fenton does not regard his case as serious, though it will be some time before he is able to be about again. The other man who has been the principal in an unpleasant adventure was William Munday, who left Casailis on May 26th, also bound for the Dargo races. He got on well until he reached the Mount Baldhead road, where the snow was lying heavily and also falling heavily. He pushed his horse along, with the snow nearly always up to the stirrup.irons, until, on tne top of Mount Baldy, he was confronted by a depth of 4ft or sft. He turned back, and at the Sheep Station was so frozen that he could not get out of the saddle. He pushed ori to Tongio West, near Casailis, eight miles further on, and spent the night at the hotel there, apparently not much the worse for the adventure. A day or two later, however, pneumonia set in as the result of the severe cold experienced, and Munday was brought into the hospital at the end of last week.

Tiie Mount Baldhead road for from three to five mouths every winter is heavily snowcovered ;md is not to be traversed except on SOOW-3UO2S.