GLACIER'S SECRET

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 147, 19 December 1927, Page 10

GLACIER'S SECRET

ALPINE TRAGEDY OF 1914

What are believed to be the remains of victims of the disaster of 1914 in •which three m«n lost their lives, have been discovered on the Hochstetter Glacier, seventeen miles from The Hermitage. The remains consist of a leg, a hand, and part of a scalp with auburn hair, skull bones, rope, and ice axe, and were discovered by Guide V. Williams on his return trip to The Hermitage after accompanying the Eight Hon. L. C. M. S. Amery and his party on his crossing of the Southern Alps to the West Coast. On 25th February, 1914, a party consisting of Mr. S. L. King, an English climber, with. Guides Thomson and Kichmond, climbed Mount Cook from the Tasman side, states the "Lyttelton Times." The party was seen on the summit by two other climbers, but a third party, -which had climbed from the Hooker side, found the track made by Mr, King's party obliterated by a huge avalanche. Search parties -were at once sent out, but the opinion of experienced guides was that there was little hope of finding them. It -was surmised at the time that the avalanche had come from Mount Silbcrhorn and swept the x)ar ty into a crevasse. And it was expected that the glacier might deliver up its relics in the course of about fifteen years. Some twelve months ago, at the same place as these remains have been found, a watch was picked up, but it bore no marks by which it could be identified. It has been reported from Hokitika that the effects recovered have been definitely identified by relatives as those of the late guide, David Thomson. It is stated that the body will be conveyed to The Hermitage, and thence to Eoss, where the interment will take place. • David Thomson was a native of Ross, aged 35 years at the time of his death. Two brothers and a sister reside at Eoss, a second sister is at Beefton, and a third at Hokitika. The remains will be interred at Eoss, where a tablet to his memory was placed at the time of the accident. The large hall erected at the Waiho Gorge was also a memorial to the late David Thomson.