PROSPECTOR'S DEATH

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 150, 22 December 1938, Page 10

PROSPECTOR'S DEATH

TRAGIC SEARCH FOR WATER

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

SYDNEY, December 16.

After a week's search, police and trackers discovered the body of Martin Peterson, 50-years-old prospector who had been lost for 10 days in wild country west of Coolgardie, Western Australia. Peterson apparently died of thirst and exposure. He had crawled 100 yards to his last resting-place on hands and knees.

Since Peterson had become lost with his mate, Clem Tachep, he had travelled 80 miles. Tachep was located suffering from thirst and exposure. The tracks of Peterson were followed for some distance by police and a black-tracker in a car, but the going became so rough that the car was abandoned and the trail was followed on foot. The party's water supply ran short, and they made a base at a place where there was an, abundant supply of fresh water. High temperatures had been recorded throughout the district during Peterson's absence, and it was realised that there was little hope of finding him alive. Peterson on occasions during Ins thirst-maddened wanderings had passed near water and settlements. At one stage he struck the Ninety Mile Road at a point about four miles from water and walked five miles along it, leaving it about two miles north of water. On another day he was within three miles of his own camp 11 miles north of a goldmine, and on a third occasion he was only ten miles north of the PerthKalgoorlie railway. His tracks showed that he had walked practically continuously, rarely pausing to rest m his plunge through the bush. Tachep, Peterson's companion, was found lying semi-naked in a cave on a hillside almost dead from thirst. He had discarded all his clothing except trousers. He told his rescuers that when he realised that he was too weak to walk back to the camp and had found no water, he had sought out a cool place and had stayed there, concentrating on keeping alive until help came. ' ______.