A STRUGGLE FOR LIFE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 6, 6 January 1872, Page 4

A STRUGGLE FOR LIFE.

(From the Hampden Guardian J. I The following adventure recently befell a man named Ryan, who lives by himself on the coast. He was fishing from some rocks in the vicinity of his house, and, I whilst engaged in that occupation, a large j roller carne in aud washed him from his standing place, and carried him out to sea. Ryan, who is described as a strong | man and a powerful swimmer, thought nothing of this, although ho was at the time encumbered with a heavy top coat and boots, but a succeeding roller, which Bhould have brought him back to land, threw him against the rocks and broke his leg. At any rate, he supposes the injury must have been received at that time, as when again carried out by the sea he had no power in bis leg. He struggled in the water for his life for a long time, until oue roller larger than tbe rest carried him right in shore, aud lodged him on a ledge in the cliff. After lying there for some lime he discovered, on attempting to move, that his leg was fractured, but he nevertheless managed to drag himself from his perilous position and reach his hut on the top of the cliff. Once there, be went to work to set bis leg and bandage it up in the hest way be could, and he so far succeeded as to make what be considered a temporary reduction. The leg was badly broken — the bone protrudin? — and a considerable loss «>f blond ensued, a circumstance to which Ryan attributes tho fact thut, till* wounded limb did not, mortify. It may he well here to state tbat Ryan's hut is situated on a lonely part of the coast line between the Gellibrand River aDd Cape Ofway, and is distant some eight, or ten miles from Mr. Gibsou's station at Glenample. He had cultivated a small piece of ground round fhe hut, aud this circuroainnce whs fortunately the cause of saving bis life. Haviug bound up bis leg the best way he could, he found it impo3sible to attempt io reach any of his neighbors, and the chance of their finding him was extremely remote, ns scarcely anyone knew where be had fixed his habitation, whicb was in a spot a long way off the <

I * only and uufrequented track that runs from tlie Gellibrand to the Cape. For 82 days Ryan lay iu his hue with his broken limb, crawling out to the garden occasionally to procure a few turnips nnd potatoes with which to satisfy the cravings of hunger. At last he determined to endeavor to reach some of the neighbors and obtain assistance, and he started off on his difficult journey to crawl the whole way over recks and through heath and scrub. On the first day he dragged himself on his side about six miles, and lay out all that night, the next day — which was Wednesday, the 22tid inst., the day of the fearful thunderstorm — he got about two miles further, and managed to reach the track along the cliffs. Fortunately . for the poor fellow, he had not been long on the track when he was overtaken'jby two travellers from the Capo Ofcway station, proceeding to Warrnambool. These two "friends iu ueeu " — a Mr. Howard andjhis son — at once attended to Ryan, and placing him on one of their horses, carried him to Mr. D. Oliver's homestead, and from thence to Mr. Gibson's station, where his wnnts were at once attended to, and where he now lies awaiting the departure of the wool drays to be conveyed up to Camperdown. Had Ryan not been found by the Howards on Wednesday, it is more than probable that in his exhausted state he could not possibly have survived that night, as the coast was visited by one of the most violent thunder-storms experienced in that locality, an J had he not been a man of strong constitution and an indomitable resolution, he never would have lived out the time, nor made the journey which was the means of saving his life. We gathered from our informant that Ryan is now in a fair way of recovery so far as unprofessional men can judge, and he himself seems perfectly satisfied with his own treatment. Ryan .has beeu instrumental, we learn, in saving some half-cloz^n persons from drowning, and had it not been for the fracture of his leg his adventure in the sea would have caused him no thought. It is to be hoped that no other such casualties will happen in tbe district, but so long as the wild country on the coast is only thinly populated, these records of suffering aud privation are liable to crop up every now and then, and what is worse, some such accident may happen of which no living rnnn may survive to tell the tale.