GIVE UP THEIR DEAD.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 3102, 26 September 1899, Page 6

GIVE UP THEIR DEAD.

tHE ALPINE GLACIERS YIELD ARKWRIGHT'S BODY AFTER 31 YEARS. tn This JLatest Instance the Identlfleatioh Is Absolutely Complete—One of the Kost Thrilling ef Mont Blano : Adventnres Vividly Beonlled. The news has been receded from Geneva, Switzerland, that the body o2 Capt Henry Arkwright, buried under an avalanche, Oct. 13, 18«t>, has been recovered, says The Chicago Post It waa found almost two miles below the place where the intrepid Englishman lost his life, and was in the main well preserved. It had heen burled by the avalanche into a crevasse of the glacier, and had moved down the mountain side with that creeping giant of the Alps until it was restored at the meftmg edge of the ice. The feet and head are lost They were doubtless ground away by the resistless crushing of the glacier in its movement But the rest of the body is perfect. Identification is complete. The hands are preserved. The right hand is remarkably lifelike and natural in appearance. Even the red tint of blood is preserved in that member. In the pocket of the gray waistcoat o* the fashion of thirty years ago waa found a blue-bordered white handkerchief quite as good as new. Capt. Arkwright's initials are embroidered in the corner. .here is a gold stud iv the linen collar, and a li*,rge stud in the start front with a small diamond >tar in the centre. Among the trinkets taken from the pockets was a silver c.gaietfe case. The gold watch is entirely uninjured. With the chain it was found near the body, evidently having been dragged •away in the slow movement of the glacier. An inquest was at once hold by the justice of the peace, the Mayor, a doctor, aud the loca! gendarmes. The remains were buried at Chamouuix, awaiting orders from England if any of Capt. Arkwright's relatives or friends can be found. The story of Capt. Arkwright's death is one of the most thrilling in the annals of Mont Blanc adventure. He had been an aide-de-camp to the Lord Lieu--Ir-n»nt of Ireland: was a scholar and also a traveler. But he was quite unused to Alp climbing. At 5.30 o'clock on the morning of Oct. 13. 18U6, he, witb his guide. Michel Siniond. two portt-rs named Francois and Joseph Tournier, and accompanied by Silvaiu Couttet of the Pierre Pointue and a servant—the latter two Apparently being v.ihinr.-iry j s.ioitions to a party already formed— i left the Grand Mulcts for the ascent of ; Mont Blanc. They took the route of the j "ancient passage." and had gone but a ; little way, probably less than five mile-*. when an avalanche descended upon them. Such visitations have_ always been peculiarly common on this route, and it is and always has been regarded especially dangerous. Couttet heard the rumbling and knew in an instant what was the matter. He gave the alarm, and, with his scrvaut, succeeded in getting away. Gapt. Arkwright and his guides, either because they did not understand or became confused, turned in the wrong direction and were overwhelmed in a tremendous avalanche of rocks, ice and snow. The Alpine Journal, vol. 2, page 383. says not a .trace of the men could bo discovered by the survivors. But this is plainly an error, for Vename Payott writing in 1879, proves that the body ot Francois Tournier was discovered by M. Couttet before he abandoned the search. He found the crushed body among the blocks of loosened ice on the Grand Plateau. Later, according to the author of "Oscillations des Quatre Grande* GJaciers," he discovered the bodies of two of the others and gave them burial. While he was still pursuing his search another avalanche descended and the last trace of the missing Englishman was lost. Michael Payott one of the porters, who was living last year, was awarded the "rcedaille d'honneur," and a diploma by the Ministry of the Interior for his conduct on the occasion. But every book of travel gives "bad guiding" as the cause of the lamentable accident. In his "Tramp Abroad." Mark Twain gives a serious account of the loss of Capt. Arkwright —one of the few serious passages in the book. It may be remembered that in the same vokiroo the author relates how. learning that this apparently stationary field of ice was really moving down to the valley of tbe Rhine, and desiring to visit that valley, he went out with his baggage, took a. position on the glacier, and waited for it to deliver him at the riverside. But "he truth is as his tale indicates. The glaciers, added to at the summit by perpetual condensation and freezing of lhe vapors that rise from the f-slley. press downward with mountainous weisrht There is no support beneath. The foot of the glacier is in the warm va4ley, and is perpetually melting. The pressure from above crowds down the miles and miles of ice, in many places hundreds of feet in thickness, *nd it slides downward imperceptibly but surely. Here and there the inequalities of the rocky track over which it moves cause the glacier to bend and even break into crevasses. A number of adventurous Alp climbers have been hurled into these crevasses. In three eases it was impossible to find them, and the bodies have been delivered—one after twenty-five years-^at the melting point or the verge of the glacier below. But none has ever remained concealed for such a length of time as has this. Almost thirty-one years have passed since London was hhrrified to learn of the terrible accident The news came just, at the timeof the vi#it of" tfie prince of Walee; to Russia. The whole city and nation were cheering oVer the international event and it would seem that the loss of one man. and he not especially famous or influential, would have had no effect upon the people. But the death of Capt. Arkwright touched a singular chord in English society. It was in the very height of the era ot Alpine climbing, and the "first ascents" of various peaks were the most engrossing incidents among tbe upper classes of society. The gloomy reputation of the Grand Passage added to the horror of the event, and all London paused in the midst of its festivity to mourn. Of course, the accident caused no checking o>f the custom. Mountain climbers continued to be social lions. and the rage continued until there were no more dangerous summits to scale without finding at the top the register of a brood of common names. The methods of guiding have been perfected since Capt Arkwright lost his life, and few accidents now occur.