RIDE ON AN AVALANCHE.

Mataura Ensign, 26 January 1911, Page 2

RIDE ON AN AVALANCHE.

MISSIONARY'S EXPERIENCE. A THRILLING MINUTE. After seven years of hardship and self-sacrifice in one of the most primitive parts of the world, Kurdistan, Rev. E. W. McDowell has returned to veiw the wonderful advance made by civilisation. Yet, coming from a land where a team of oxen remains the accepted ! mode of transportation, he finds that even in this speed-mad epoch modern invention has enabled no man to attain tho speed record he made in a land where the splutter of eleericity and the odor of gasoline have never intruded (says an English paper). Without the aid of any mechanical device this remarkable man sped through the air more than 5000 feet in loss than i,ne minute. He rode 011 the breast of an avalanche, and had as his travelling companions in the unequalled flight 17 native burden-bearers who lived to tell the tale ami one who was lost. Mr McDowell is a missionary who for 23 years has boon engaged in trying to drive the doctrine of J'resbyierianism into the Moslem heart of Asiatic Turkey. Technically he is stationed at ITrnmia, Persia. Actually his work oarric s ii:.>u across ihe border line into tin- land'of the Kurds, the picturesque nomadic tribes of Asia Minor. Ho made his wonderful speed record from the top to the bottom of Mount Ardanush, in Central Kurdistan, a mountain which is the terror of native travellers and around which cluster many a tradition of adventure, romance and death. In all its history, however, there never was recorded such a flight and such a marvellous escape as were achieved by this missionary. A Wild Mediaeval People. Mr McDowell's work does not lie in the cities but in the mountain districts, where the stalwart, excitement-loving Kurds live like the feudal.barons of the .Middle Ages. Each chief or sheikh has his own followers, who till the small patches of land on the mountain sides and in the adjacent valleys. Each follower pays a certain tribute to his leader in products of the field and in service. When feudal shiekh sallies forth to make war or to pillage some hapless village the followers must obey the call to arms or die. These Kurds are the despair of the Young Turks, who arc trying to modernise and civilise their country. It was in travelling from the mountain fastness of one sheikh to the holdings of another that Mr McDowell and liis calvalcade of 29 burden-bearers and guides found themselves on the summit of Mount Ardanush. The dangers of the ascent and descent of this peak were well known to every man in the party. In English its title means "commending your spirit to God before starting." But it afforded the one means of communication between the two districts. The party had broken camp before daybreak to start the ascent, and at '2 p.m. they stepped on the very top cf the peak to look down its wicked precipitous sides, agleam with the nowfalleu snow. Time and again the snow-

fall is followed by the freezing weather, and then its white sides turn to ice. But on this particular day no ice was visible. l.t was hidden by a new mantle of fresh snow, varying in depth from eighteen inrhes to two feet, for this reason the members of the party realised that, the descent into the valley would be specially dangerous. The Fearsome Ride. The thirty men sat down in silence for their noonday rations and their customary smoke. Not a word was uttered, for often the human voice, and especially laughter, will start an avalanche on its death-dealing flight. The pipes laid aside, each man rose and braced himself for the hard trip. A guide would lead, testing the snow with his sharply pointed stick, and where necessary, cutting out a tiny ledge just large enough to lodge a human heel. Behind him would come Mr McDowell, who, seeing the rays of j the afternoon sun beating on the snow, removed his overcoat and handed it to thti bearer next in line. The downward : progress was to be made in zigzag fatiiion. The zigzag line had begun. Mr McDowell followed the guide, and nineteen of the cavalcade had stepped: off the ledge, tiie other eleven awaiting their turn to follow. The guide was a i od in the lead when, with a crash that boomed from mountain peak to mountain peak, and echoed from valley to valley, the avalanche started. From the eleven men clinging perilously to the top ledge of that mile-high mountain peak their fellow-travellers disappeared as lightning cuts across the sky. Then silence as of death in a whirl of maddening, blinding whiteness ! And what of the men who had shot out of sight? Here arc Mr McDowell's own sensations:— How It Felt. "First, the crash. Words cannot measure its power. Then absolute darkness in the heart of snow dust the very heart of night without stars. Third, a gale that cut into the marrow as I passed through inky space. Fourth, precisely the same sensation one has in shooting the chutes. Then as we passed from the straight, precipitous mountain side to the more gradual descent, an undulatorv movement. We were bouncing over snow-covered rocks. And finally toward the end, as if we were in the maw of some huge monster, twisted, tossed, and shot hack ami forth. Once my body doubled up like a jackknife and pitched forward. I thought my back was broken and the end had come. A second later I shot out in the air, but the sense of suffocation was not relieved. My ears, nose and mouth were filled with snow. Instinctively I strove to relieve 'this agony more hideous than mere physical pain. At the End cf the Ride. "My first thought was that 1 must be the only survivor; then I turned over to see just above me a leg protruding from the snow. I dug this chap out, and profiting by my own experience, I ran my finger into his'mouth and dug out the suffocating snow. A little further on a turban showed above the snow, and another man was hauled

forth. Hero a sandal was thrust through the shoot of snow, and there r motionless hand. Some of the men were too hadlv injured to move. All we could do was to dig out the snow from their mouths and give them air. if we had stopped to investigate their injuries the work of rescue would never have been completed. Those who could walk, even some with broken limbs, went to the rescue of their fellows. All were saved but one poor chap. "By this time I was chilled to the hone, and fully alive to the other danger which confronted us. The injured nmst bo got to the nearest village before night closed in. Those who u<iv least hurt helped to carry thu.-e In. eoxdd not move. \\'o were a loflking cavalcade. Mr McDowell had three ribs broken and a twisted kneecap. In the village where the party sought refuge, and were nursed back to health in more or less crude fashion, the flight through the air was regarded in two way.-.. Those who leaned towards Christianity declared that but for the presence u! the missionary the entire party must have died, and as proof of the miracle pointed to the fact that the missionary was shot out clear of the snow to save his comrades. The unbelievers shook their heads, and vowed that the accident would never have happened if no foe of Mohammed had been in the party. "A hardship 'i" echoed Mr McDowell in response to a question. "No, this was an incident of travel for which the missionary must he prepared. The \oung Turks are doing wonders for their country. Three years ago I never travelled without a guard. Last winter I went from Van to Beirut without any guard. But, of course, the influence of the Young Turk has not yet been felt in Kurdistan. That is still a land of what we would term bandits."