DIED ON EGMONT.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 6754, 8 February 1892, Page 3

DIED ON EGMONT.

REMAINS FOUND.

(By Telegraph.)

NEW PLYMOUTH, Fbb 8,

A party who ascended Mount Egmont i yesterday found the body of Southwood, who went up last April and did not return. The body was found m a good state of preservation on the top of the mountain, lying across two boulders at the foot of a precipice about 20 feet high. One leg was thrust out and the other bent under tbo body, as was one arm. One side of the face ■■■ crushed as if smashed by a fall. The body had the clothes on even the hat, and the flesh was in such a good state of preservation that the body could not have been exposed to the air more than two days, and must have been covered by snow which had melted off it. One of the party was Mr Hendry, clerk in the police station, who searched (he deceased’s clothes, and took from the pocket a watch, which had stopped at 12 20 a.m., a pp"ae, some cartridges, a number of ink pencil leads, a match box, a knife and other trifles. The cartridges had not been fired, the caps being intact but the paper had all rotted away letting the shot and powder escape. Hendry also found two bundles of papers which, on account of the damp, had been reduced almost to a pulp. Deceased was a man apparently between 25 and 30 years of age, with brown hair and brown moustache. Ihe remains had on the following articles of clothing, light check coat and ve.-t, white Bedford cord trousers, heavy laceup boots and brown knitted sooks. Constable Hendry and party placed the body in a secure position and marked the spot so that it can he easily found again. It is thought that the unfortunate man must have gained the summit of the mountain, gone to the edge of the precipice and fell over on lo the boulders below. This is the first fatal accident that has occurred on Mount Egmont. Southwood came to Stratford on Thursday April 2 last year. He borrowed a horse from a settler, saying he wn going out shooting up Pembroke Road. It was understood he was to be back to catch the evening train for the south, but as ho did not show up the following day (Friday), the ser'ch party went out on Saturday, and up near the mountain found horse, ammunition, and pocket book, but no further trace of the man. On the Sunday a le-ge party went out to search, when Ids gun, leggings, and spurs were found on a ridge some 500 feet higher then the horse and coat were found the day before. This plainly indicated the man’s intention of ascending the peak, but no certain traces could be found higher up. The gorge on either side of the ildge was examined up to the snowline but above this point the arctic severity of the weather prevented much being done. It is thus evident that af er Southwood fell he had been killed and buried by snow, which has not been off his body till it melted this summer The body was fully preserved, even the moustache being quite intact. It will require eight men lo bring the body down from where it is. Southwood was a nephew of Mr O. Smith, draper of Wellington, and came over from Austrc 1 a about two and a half years ago. He began business as a i canvasser for the Government Insurance Dcarlment, and was engaged in the Welling- i ton district up to within a Week or eo of the time he was lost. His rge was about 25, and < ho was unmr -ied. His life was insured for i £3( Tin the office for which he canvassed.