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Cromwell Argus, Volume VI, Issue 298, 28 July 1875, Page 7

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Terrible Adventure on Floating Ice. A thrilling account of the sufferings of thirty-four men from Newfoundland, who were cast away on floating ice, of the death of thirteen from cold and exposure, and of the rescue of the remainder in a nearly exhausted condition, is given by a New York paper. The men are all Irish, or of Irish descent, and comprised nearly the entire able-bodied male population of the little town of St. Mary's. Andrew Mooney, a survivor, gives an account of the disaster which befel the parly, tie says : The ice had been firm all winter, and the villagers had gone upon it frequently to hunt sea-birds. On the 2nd of March a brig was discovered 2|- miles from the shore fast in the ice. The party of thirty-four was gathered, and started out on the ice to her and spent the day on board. Towards evening they started homeward, but had not proceeded far when the fact was presented to them that the ice had parted between them and the shore, and the opening was increasing every moment. When the brink of the ice was reached the space of water between them and the shore was half a mile wide, the ice having broken one mile out from the land, and the immense field upon which they stood was floating steadily further out to sea. It was now quite dark. The party were exhausted and only half-clad, and unprepared for the terrible cold which soon set in. At first it rained until they were all wet to the skin. The rain then turned to sleet and snow. The wind veered to the northward and the cold became intense. Then came the struggle for life, the men stamping their feet and running madly about, the more sturdy encouraging the weak and faltering. At midnight the cold and exhaustion began to tell upon the doomed ones. First one and then another would lie down, saying he could go no futher. ' The others would pick them up and try to keep them on their feet, but, after reeling for a short distance like drunken men, they would fell senseless upon the ice and die without a struggle. When morning dawned seven corpses were discovered at intervals upon the ice. A piece of ice 20ft square floating near the brink of the ice in the open water, upon which nine of them got, hoping that it would float towards (••he shore ice, and they could then save themselve. When it had floated 300 yds it grounded, and the unfortunates remained upon it for three days and nights, during which time six of them died, the other three being picked up by the schooner George S. Fogg. AH the food they had in all that time was a small white fish which was frozen in the sea. This they divided between them. The eighteen men remaining, after the nine floated out in the smaller icefield, made their \iay back to the abandoned brig, which moved with the ice for a week in sight of land, and the fishermen were on her ten days before they were rescued.

.Dr. Wilkes, in hia recent work on physiology, remarks that " It is estimated that the bones of every adult person require to be fed with lime enough to make a marble mantel every eight months." It will bo perceived, says Max Adelor, therefore, that in the course of about ten years each of us eats three or four mantel pieces and a few sets of front door steps. And in a long life I suppose it is fair to estimate that a healthy American could devour the capitol at Washington, and perhaps two or three medium-sized quarries besides. It is awful to think of the consequences if a man should be shut off from his supply of lime for a while, and then let loose in a cemetery. A n ordinary tomb-stone would hardly be enough for a lunch for him.