LONE DEATH IN SNOW

Hokitika Guardian, 28 July 1931, Page 7

LONE DEATH IN SNOW

BONES GNAWED BY WOLVES. EDMONTON, June 12. A weather-bleached skeleton some of itl 10 bones of which show traces of havj ing been gnawed by wolves, are the only remains of Mr John Noel Bennett, I aged eighteen, the student son of a j wealthy Englishman. The young man disappeared on a lonely trial across the i Rocky Mountains at the beginning of last winter. The skeleton is being sent home this week. | Mr Bennett set out alone of October 10 to make the journey from the Peace River region in North Alberta through Pine Pass to Prince George in British J Columbia. It was not until the dis- ! covery of the skeleton by a guide late l in May, after a search lasting seven months, that anything was heard of him. 1 Lying beside the skeleton the guide found the dead man’s rifle, and his diary. This tells a brief but moving tale of 1 ids last terrible experiences before the wild took him for its victim. On November 1 Air Bennett wrote that progress seemed hopeless, but be was not worrying. But next day lie lost lijs horse, axe, and gun, and spent thp dav recovering them. Two days later lie made the discovery that he : was going in the wrong direction, and he was obliged to retrace his steps. The horse was now without food. He next wandered about In the rain, with h'is food supply ever dwindling, until November 9, when lie shot a wild duck and ate it raw. The only other food left was one tin of beans nivl a j little flour. 011 November 11 M.r BenI nett wrote that he had abandoned t-lie : horse, wnd that raw flour was his only food. On the day after lie recorded that although bis feet- were terribly frozen, lie had succeeded in crossing the river hare-footed on an ice floe. On November 19, in a last flicker of hope. Mr Bennett made liis final entry in the diary, it was that lie expected to reach Macleod (Alberta) in about a weelc. But before that week had passed the snow was covering his body.