DOCTOR'S HEROISM.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 972, 12 November 1910, Page 10

DOCTOR'S HEROISM.

ADRIFT ON 10 FEET OF ICE OFF LABRADOR. NIGHT OF PERIL. In January last there appeared a book on Labrador (the vast half-explored peninsula of eastern Canada) written by Dr. Wilfred T. .Grenfell, medical missionary and administrator of the Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen at St. Anthony, on tho coast of Labrador. At the timo it was lamented that Dr. Grenfell said too little about his own perilous adventures. But Dr. Grenfell has now made good the deficiency in a book entitled "Adrift on an Ice-Pan" (Constable and Co., 2s. net), in which lie tells in a graphic manner the story of a thrilling adventure lasting a night and a day.

Dr. Grenfell was sent for to perform an operation on a young man sixty miles from St. Anthony. It was a matter of life or death. No time was to be lost, and -Dr. Grenfell started out with his dog-sleigh and team of dogs. Part of the journey was over ten miles of ice across ail arm of the sea.

"The first rain of the year was falling when I started, and I was obliged to keep on w;hat we call tho 'ballicaters,' or ice .'barricades, much farther up the bay. Thou I had expected. The sea of the night- before had smashed the ponderous covering of ice right to the landwash. There -were great gaping chasms between the enormous blocks, which we call pans, and half a mile out it was all clear water. ' "Aji 'island ■ three miles out had preserved a bridge of ice, however, and by crossing a few cracks I managed to reach' it. From the island it was four miles across to a rocky promontory—a course that would- be several mile 3 shorter than, going round the shore. Here as far as the eye.coijld reach the-ice seemed good, though it,was very rough. Like Flies in Treacle. "All went well till I was about a quarter of' a mile from the landi'ng-point. Then the wind suddeiily fell, and 1 noticed, that-I was travelling over loose'sisli,' which was like porridge and probably many...feet. deep. By stabbing down, I could drive my .whip handle through the thin coating of young ice that was floating- on it. I could not see one pan larger than ton feet square. Ketreat was absolutely impossible. Neither was there any way to get off tho little pan I was surveying from. "There was not. a moment to lose. I tore off my oilskins, threw myself on my hands and knees, and shouted to my team to go ahead for tho shore. Before wo had gone twenty yards the dogs got frightened, hesitated for a moment, and the sleigh instantly sank into the slob. It was necessary then ..for the dogs to pull much harder, so that they now began to sink in also.

. "I managed -to loosen my sheaf-knife, soram.blo forward, find the' traces in the water, and out them, holding on to tho leader's trace wound round my ; wrist. We were like flies in treacle. It was impossible to rapke any progress through tho sisli ice by swimming, so I lay there and thought all would soon be over. Suddenly J. saw the trace of a big dog that had himself gone through before hp reached the pan, and though he was close to it was quite unablo to force his way put. Along this I hauled myself, using hiiu as a-bow anchor, but much bothered by the other d"gs as I passed them, one pf which got on my - shoulder, pushing me further down into the ice. .Three Dogs Killed. "There..was only, a yard-,or so more when I had passed my living anchor, and s? 011 I lay with my dogs around me on the little piece of slob ice. I had to help tlvem on to it, working them through tho lane, that J had made. Tho piece of ice we w.ero .on was so small it was obvious we must soon all be drowned if we remained upon it as it drifted seaward into more open water." ! Aided in marvellous fashion by his dogs Dr. Grenfell .managed to reach a larger pan of ice, but this started right out to-sea

■Dr. 'Gronfel.l's garments . were wet through, and as a protection . frotn tho cold of : the nijjht lie- had to. kill three of his dogs for their skins for, a covering for Jiiraself. He had lost his'coat, gloves, arid oilskins, but among the articles of clothing, ho had with-him were: his Oxford University running 6horts und a pair of Richmond Football Club red, yellow, an<l bl?ck stockings., Thore liq stood on an ico pan in a costume exactly as lie stood twenty years previously on tho foothall field. . . \ As morning dawned he made' a flag-polo of the legs of the dead dogs, and, cold fs it was, used, his shirt- for a flag. Ho was at last seen from the shore, and a boat, manned: by Newfoundland fishermen,: put out and succeeded in ploughing their way through the , slob ice to the pan. ' ■ The operation for which Dr. GrenfeU set out was successfully performed, and when the author wrote his book the patieut was Qn the high road to recovery.