SNOWSTORMS ON THE, HILLS

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 203, 14 May 1887, Page 3

SNOWSTORMS ON THE, HILLS

Nonk but those who have been caught: in them can form any idea of how terrible are mountain snow-storms. Blinding, bewildering, both men and aninuils quickly suooumb to them. Clouds and banks of snow, rush ■ hither and. thither in opuquu nrn^es : the bitter hail sleet scorn to dvi\e liuougli. you. A few moments after the storm. breaks every wrap you may have at command is soaked through, the cold is intense ; and a sonso of numbnesh soon takes- possession of the whole body. Twice hn\u 1 narrowly escaped death when out on the northern mountains in winter, suddenly finding myself at the close of a short afternoon enveloped in a blinding storm. Once, after long exposure, "I owed my deliverance to a seaveh-pavty of shepherds; on the second occasion I was wi\fd by the intelligent fidelity of a brace of foxhounds. Those who have been ovei taken in this manner have not always been so fortunate ; and home terrible deaths Hoac occurred among the higher hills in winter, a* the following stories will slioa\ . Half-way down thih grey stone wall, on the near side, is a Kid green spot ; and beside it we have thrown up a loose cairn. The snow had fallen thickly for many day* ; all the deep holes wove tilled up, and the mountain-road was no longer to be seen. The wall-top*. *tood out a* white ridge on the otherwise smooth smface. Only the crags hung in shaggy snowy masses, black seams and eeaiuvr-iuking out the ravines Nature was sombi<tV»'and still ; it heomed as though her pulse had ceased to beat. The softly winnowed snowiiakes still fell, and not even the wing of a bird of prey moved in the thin cold" air. It had gone haul with the sheep. RumUeds w ere buried in the 'snow, and would have to be dug out. They sought the hite of the old wall and foil into deep drifts ; but the hardy goatlike Herdwieks instinctively climbed to the bleak and exposed fell-tops, and in this A\as their safety. To relie\e the sheep that had a- yet escaped, hay \\a- earned to the fells ; each shepherd having a loose bundle upon his back. It was thus, vibh three dog-,, that we toiled up the «oige by an undefined trail parallel to the buried fence. Soon it began to miow hejuily, and the sk> suddenly darkened. Tlie dogs that w ere in front stopped betoic some object. They whined, ran towaids i^, and gave out short, sharp b.uks. With a kind of instinctive dread we followed them as they led u- towaid.s a granite boulder ; and on h> lee side lay something -.tsukly outlined aemn^t the snow. "Dead:" we whispered to each other. Time was no trace of pain over the ieature- — nothing but 7-igid quiet. The icy iingeis grasped a pencil, and on the .-now lay a «crap of paper, It contained onh two woids "This day'"— then stopped. We buried the body next moining in the little mountain cemetery. Whence he came or whither he went mine ever knew. A few of the dead man".- belongings, trifling enough, are thrust in a hole in the old bamf tor her whom we -till expect to come for them one ot these da\.s. In our summei fi-hins,-,om, of the -pot.- at which we used to i e.-oi t w a.- a quaint eottatze in the beautiful \.ile of l>uddon--the -nine that Mr Woid.su oith ha- immortali-id in his series of sonnet-. The cottage stood hard by the stream, and in it lncd a widow woman, the daughter of a hill " *tate.-.inan." During trout time the how-ewa- embowered in greenery. Delieiou.-l} cool was its whitewashed porch and clean-sandal flooi, a great tree standing over all. in tlie grate ot her parlour m summer, wheie Mr Wordnwoith often used to Mt, she im.niabh had a thick :-od of puiple heathei m full bloom. Here many anglers came and chew horn tluir hold* the pink-spotted ti out. The dipper and the kingti-hei daited b) the door, and those who diaiik-in the quiet and pa.-toral peae- 1 of Duddou never forgot it. The woman ot the c<.ttu<2<\ by gieat indu.stry and e.'.eition. had le.ued and .—ttled comfoi tably in life, a small family. Riie w\h res].eet< 'I bj all about her. Out of her small me.vi.- -he j£a\e aw,i\ almost ;kmuch food and Home-In ewed ale a- was sold by any count) \ inn of the district. For one in so limited u -phere her life was almo.-t an ideal one ; and yet her end waterribly sad. She left home one wintiy afternoon to \isit a sick- lelation in Eskdale. At this time '" pedlar- "— of whom the -Wanderer or the "Exclusion" i-> a tjpe— were common in iem.,te country di-tricts. and one of them ohV'ed to eon\ey her in his gig to Eskdale ov< r the Birk Moor road. At the end of tin- he was to take her up at a state- 1 time. It happened that .-he was too late for the tiavellei , but walked onwaul.-, supposing that he wa- behind and would o\ ert.iko hei . On the .sixth day after this the clei gyman's daughter fi om E-Vkdale ca-ually called at the- poor woman's cottage. It then 1-ei -'me known that -he had not been seen at E.skdale, and a band of dalesfolk at once set out. to.->eaich tinfen'-. The body of the poor cieatuie was found only foity yards from the road, her hands and knees teriibly lacerated, and her diess torn. These showed that aftci 10-incj' the power of walking she had struggled onwards, no one know- how tai upon her hands and knees. She had taken out her spectacle- 1 , as was thought, to assist her in seeing her way through the blinding mi-Is. These had prevailed for a week, and to them must be attributed the fact that her body lay so long undiscovered by the mountain road. Homo s\\ , etmucits. tied ma handkei chicf ,\\ hich .-he had earned for her grandchildren, weie found ueai the spot w here she died. Eskdale is one of the most pieture.-quc iflens among fche Cumbrian mountain* — " a spot made by Nature for her.self," a- some of the Lake poets have it. With it- tarn, its ghyll -con tinned waterfall, and tlie fact of it£ being placed among the .splintery peaks of the Borrowdalesei if»->, it constitutes a wildly charming spot at every season. Heie^upon the snow, many year.- ago, was played out a ciuel tragedy indeed A poor hard-working peasant and his w ife, named Green, were returing from Langdale late on a wintry night to their home in Eaxlale. A teiuible storm overbook them on the way, and becoming exhausted, they both died in il. Meanwhile six children weresnowedup in their cottage, where, without help, they remained several days. Fully appreciating their situation, but as yet, ignorant ot the tate -which had befallen her parent-, a little lass of nine assumed command at home, and exhibited Unusual forethought and care in meeting the home wants of her brothers and sisters. . After a time she made her escape from the snow-bound cottage, and told the hill-farmers and shepherds how her father and mother had not returned. A search party was organised, and after throe days the bodies were discovered upon the hills at a short distance from each other 1 — "St. James Gazette."

A Wish Deaco?\. - " Deaoon Wilder, I wn»f yoi' to tel mo how you kept yourself and famil* no well the past'season, when all ihf rest of us have been aick co nine . and Jm\e had the doctor* running to us so often" "Brother Taylor, the answer is vcr. eußy. I used Hop Bitters in time, and kept my family well, and" saved lingo doctors' bills. Four shillings' worth of it kept- ur all well and able to work all the time, a rl I will warrant it has co*t you und moat of tbo neighbours £10 rn apiooe to keep Sick the same time. I fuiio> you ! 1 ta^u mj mccliciiu hereafter. Sou.