HARDY SEPTUAGENARIAN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23648, 4 November 1938, Page 13

HARDY SEPTUAGENARIAN

THREE DAYS’ ORDEAL HELPLESS AFTER FALL iFrom Our Own Correspondent) SYDNEY. Oct. 26. After falling down a mountain sic', 2 and injuring himself so badly that he could not move, a 75-year-old Queenslander, Ralph Butt, lay helpless for three days and nights. When he was rescued by searchers he was suffering from a fracture of the pelvis, facial abrasions, and sunburn. Butt left his home to burn grass. He tied his horse to a tree and began to ascend a mountain. He slipped, and rolled 30 feet downhill. Too badly injured to rise, he tried to crawl by grasping grass and other vegetation, but did not have sufficient strength. Butt had fallen near a small spring, water from which kept him alive, as he lay helpless beneath a scorching sun.

Neighbours became concerned when Butt, who lived alone, failed to make his daily call for mail. They searched for a day, and late at night saw smoke rising from a fire which Butt had lit with his last two matches.