THIRST-STRICKEN MAN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23704, 11 January 1939, Page 10

THIRST-STRICKEN MAN

DRANK KANGAROO’S BLOOD „ FOUND ALIVE BY SEARCHERS (From Our Own Correspondent! SYDNEY, Jan. 6. By drinking the blood of a kangaroo, which he had shot, William Harrop, aged 64, who was lost for three days in waterless, heavv scrub country south of Gingin, Western Australia, probably saved his life. He was found by a search party sitting under the shelter of three boughs which he had built to protect himself from the relentless sun. The dead kangaroo lay nearby. Harrop left other members of a camping party to go shooting in the bush, but he did not return at nightfall. A search oarty with police and a blacktracker, was organised, and his tracks were followed through the dense, rough country till he was found Arrows scratched in the ground with a stick by Harrop helped the searchers to follow the tracks. He had frequently walked in semi-circles over a distance of 14 miles. He was too weak to rise yvhen found, but revived after sips of water and eating an orange. Within half an hour he surprised everyone by mounting a horse and riding back to camip. C. Olsen, miner, was less fortunate than Harrop. His body was found by aborigines employed on a station 60 miles north of Tennant Creek, Central Australia, several days after he had apparently died of thirst. Olsen left Tannant Creek after receiving his share from a crushing of oi’e with the intention, it is believed, of cycling to Darwin. He was illequipped for such a long, dry journey, and it is thought that his meagre supply of water became exhausted shortly after leaving Tennant Creek. Apparently despairing of finding water on the main road, he abandoned his cycle and wandered into the bush, but died before reaching water a few miles from where he was found.