FOUND BY DOG

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22053, 8 September 1933, Page 5

FOUND BY DOG

LOST MAN TRACKED NIGHT SEARCH IN BUSH SAGACITY OF ALSATIAN. ;. i: : - Showing great sagacity, a .Sydney police Alsatian dog used recently to search for a young man who had become lost in French's Forest.led the police to a cave, where the lost man was sleeping. t The man was Mr C. W. Harris, aged 25, manager of a service station at Manly. When interviewed the day after his adventure he described the dog's work as marvellous. "I cannot speak too highly of the dog and' the police," he said. "It was remarkable that I was found in the dense scrub and in the pitch'darkness. The dog seemed almost human and was a credit to its .traiper." Mr Harris left home on Tuesday on a rabbit shooting expedition in French's Forest. Ho had a rifle and cartridges and was not wearing as the day was warm and sunny. All day he tramped through French's Forest without taking note of the time or the direction in which he was walking.- Darkness came on, and he was still in the thick scrub. • V. '-'.'■■"•'.' ,'"'.•" As night fell Mr Harris realised that he was lost. He came to a cliff about 3C feet or 40 feet high and, as he was unable to find a way down in the darkness he waited on the top. He soon became numb with cold, being clad only in shirt and trousers. He gathered dry loaves and tried to start a fire by firing bullets into the leaves, as he was without matches. Suddenly he hit upon an idea. ■ . . "I went into a small cave," said Mr Harris. " I took the lead out of a doeen or so cartridges and poured the powder down the barrel of the rifle, ,after having first placed one of the blank Vcartridges in the breech. ,1 poured more powder on some dry leaves arid fired at them. The fire started' successfully,' and I gathered wood and built it up in the cave. I.then lay down and about midnight I,dozed off." . WJien Mr Harris did' not return at nightfall his friends feared that he had met with ■an accident' in the bush and sought the help of the Manly police. When he had not returned by 2 a.m. Inspector Brodie, of Manly, organised a search party, consisting of Sergeant Constable and four constables from the Manly station. A-request had been sent to the city, and Constable Denholm, with his Alsatian police dog Tess, went to Manly. DOG ON THE TRAIL. The dog was given. a scent from a coit belonging to Mr Harris, and she was pot or the trail at the spot where he had left his car. The police were equipped with hurricane lamps. The darkness and the roughness of the bush country were not obstacles to the dog. She followed Mr Harris's wandering trail, but was sometimes baffled for a moment where he had recrosscd his path. She then followed the more recent trail. The police were set a difficult job in following the dog. Several of them suffered falls and bruises in the darkness, and Constable Denholm's trousers were badly torn. About 4 a.m. the dog took the police to the neighbourhood of the cave in which Harris was sleeping. His sleep had prevented him from bearing their shouts. His fire had burned low and was not visible from a distance. Suddenly the dog broke away from the police and ran into the cave. She woke Mr Harris by licking his face. The police were waiting some distance away, wondering what was the matter, when the dog reappeared, followed by Mr Harris. GUIDED IN.THE DARKNESS. The spot where Mr Harris was found was about two miles from the edge of the forest, but the police' search party had covered a much greater distance. Mr Harris said the dog butted him with her tead until he stood up, and then,, placing herself against his legs, guided hirii to whore two of the police were waiting. Whenever he walked in, the wrong direction the dog pushed against his legs until h- was on the right track. ■The police dog took a friendly interest in Mr Harris all the way back to the mail} road. Mr Harris was none the worse for his experience. On reaching home he ate a large meal and then pro* coedod to work at his garage as usual. Thp Commissioner of Police, Mr Childs, was pleased that the police dog had performed so w»ll in- the first difficult task' of real police work she had been given. He said that it proved the value of the police dogs in tracking lost people and possibly saving lives. The dogs have yet to have the experience of tracking down criminals.