THE LOST MAN JONSON.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3102, 7 June 1881, Page 3

THE LOST MAN JONSON.

FURTHER INCIDENTS

We spent an hour or so with Anders Jonson on Friday forenoon, and found him •wonderfully improved in physical appearance, since having assisted to get him out of the bush, on the day following his discorevy. He tells us that at times he was quite elated in spirits when lost in the forest, and experienced a sense of intense enjoyment and light, keartedness, that before he was unacquainted with. He says he used to dance and sing at the top of his voice, and cut some extraordinary capers, although so far as he knew he was completely lost, and although he was suffering the pangs of hunger, as well as extreme privation and exposure. He tells us he has lost ono whole day in bis reckoning, during ■which he must have slept for over thirty hours consecutively. It is probable that his wearied, exhausted, and famished condition, induced sleep, from which he rose refreshed and with venewed vigor. He says that the heart of the fern tree that he ate some of ■was not urlike beef-marrow, but was as sweet as honey, and far from unpalatable. Could he have once rnaile a fire he would have stayed by it until rescued. The cold of the "first Tew nights, when drenched with rain, was intense, and he thought his exhausted nature must have succumbed. He had the greatest difficulty in keeping any heat in his body, being so thinly clad, and the weather being so inclement. His hands and feet were quite benumed with the cold, and a chill appeared to strike through to his heart. So long as day lasted, he rould manage by dint of exercise and ex- , evfcion to keep himself moderately wavm; but when night see in and the cold became mo":e intense, he sometimes thought he should not live to see the morning. He used to stand and stamp with his feet for hours together to keep up a semblance of warmth in his frame, and often found in the morning that he had stamped holes of considerable deptli in the soft soil. His experiences during the first fortnight were terrible to contemplate, but afterwards he appeared to become gradually more reconciled to his position. He attributes his survival of the combined influences to which most men would have succumbed in body and mind, mainly to his former regular manner of living, and moderation in all things. He says had he been a man accustomed to drinking, or excess of any kind, that he is certain he must have lost either his life or his reason, or perhap3 died in the solitudes of the great forest raving mad. His possible fate and miraculous escape are the frequent theme of his conversation, and he is full of gratitude for his providential preservation from a terrible death. A few more of the incidents of his eventful wanderings have yet to be compiled for publication. — Manawatu Standard.