STRUGGLED HARD TOR LIFE

Otago Witness, Issue 2308, 26 May 1898, Page 11

STRUGGLED HARD TOR LIFE

B&rly Sunday morning Ne/eon Bennett, manager of the Chilcoot il^ilwfcy and Transport Company, which is building a tramway from Dyea. to the summit, sent 18 men to the foot of the summit to repair some damaged wires. Nothing had since been heard of them, but, as no saow had slid from the summit, it was thought that they were likely stormbound above the Scilss. Instead of this, the entice 18 had perished muerably under the enow which had fallen bslow the foot of Long Hill. So hard and level was the snow here thstt no one of the thousands present at first even suspected that ib had come from the mountain side. During the forenoon hundreds and hundreds of men and sleds had passed back and forth over this enow. That 18 dead men lay beneath was discovered largely by chance.

At oie 6ud of the elide the real character of the snow was suggested to one of the rescuers, and he and » number of his comrades began digging there. In a short time they found the corpse of one of the Chilcoot Company's men. Their exertions were redoubled at this, and when dusk fell this evening 14 oub of the party of 18 which set out yesterday for the summit lay cold and rigid in the company's powerhouse. Besides the Chilcoob Company's employees the number of nnlcoked-for victims may be much increased by persons who stuck to the shelter of their "tents and caches in the extreme stress of yesterday znorniDg's storm. The pcsitioD in the snow of these taken out dead and the expressions on their countenances are varied in manner 1o a degree of pitiful grotesqueness. Many of the men had lived for comparatively lengthy periods id the cold bosom of the snow. This is evidenced by the fact that they were found in pocket*, so to speak, formed by their struggles and the warmth of their bodies and breath. One dead man lay aboub 20ft from the trail in the direction of the mountain's base. He had plainly burrowed his way thus far in hie efforts to escape before he succumbed. The fact of another were first exposed to view, the corpse being standing on its head in the snow.

The third man, robust and of a splendid physique when in life, was found doubled up in a set muscular contortion. Avound the upper portion of his body the snow was crimsoned with blood. He had torn the skin from his hands and face in his unavailing struggle oo be free.