Extraordinary Escape.

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 609, 14 February 1852, Page 4

Extraordinary Escape.

The last Abing'lon Virginian contains the following account of one of the most remaikable crapes probably on record. It was almost miraculous : The children of Mr. George Hiclcan, a citizen of Scott county, were playing together in a field, and m j ar the mouth of a fathomless sink-hole. In their gambols one of them, a boy about eiiiht or ten years of age, pushed his little brother, about lour years did, headlong over the edge and down into the deep dark pit below. It wa^ some time after the child was missed before any certain in foi motion could be drawn from the others as to what had become of him : and it was only threats of severe punishment that finally ovprcome their (ear, andextoned from Iheboy who did the deed a conftssion of what had happened. An effort was made immediate!} to ascertain the situation of the little fellow, and afford him relief if lie was not beyond its power. Ropes -were tied together, with a stone attached to one end, and an attempt was made to fathom the depth beneath, but more than sixty feet of rope were employed in vain; no bottom could be reached. Alighted candle was then lft down, but its light gave no hopeful indkation, except that the pit was free from , choke damp or impure air as far down as the candle descended. .Night came on, and all further efforts Had to be for the time abandoned. On the next day further trials were made of 'the depth of the pit, but with no better success. In despair the frantic parents were about to give up all hopes of rrcovery or of relieving their little innocent, and preparations Were being made to clus>e up t'le mouth of the pit to prevent a like occurrence in the future, whm it was suggested and agreed upon that another and a final effort should be made by letting some indiyidual down by ropes to examine the nature of the abyss, and ascertain if there was any en-

: com- g<-mpiit for hiiih"r eflbits in I) 1 '«»u d ht-low. Ab 1 oilier of the ]om fluid und<rtiok the r«rtr ul ta k. <\>id* were «.i^t<*i.<cJ around Ins wast .md limbs, -nivl oi.e to his "ii«-t, by wliiuh he might i'ld'cate to those above In* wia'ies ftitlur to cc T e.s«< t»<-l or to be diawn up. He was swung off and .slowly lowered, until having £one to I,'ie depth of i.b .<it fifty feet, he looked below iiiin, .itid (heie bhxie ihr- ugh the (hick dmkncss two t» lis emn^ eyesint^n'ly looking upward. In anothei moment lie was sta»dinw on a shelf or ;ii)»!e in the Mi aft with The -child c'cisped-to his bosom. He ia'-tcned the litlle Itiiow sretvrely lo'his own body, und biddiug'him Ufce the iope fitmlv in his h i'ids, ; tlie 'i^nal was given to draw up '! he child hung coinu'sivelv to the rope, mid, i i a few minutes tli^y aiose wi bin view o> the hundred nnxioiis spfi taiois who bad .i^sembic d to \vitne«i« the result; and when I lie fir st g'impse of the little fellow alive cang'it their eager «iize, screams ft'id shouts of joy Horn the excited multi'iide filled the air, an I bisr tears of sympathy started from the eus of evciy belioldtr- A'ter the firt parox\s-ns of del ght b»d subsided, ihe child was cxdmin d to see if it had sustained any injury, iui'l extiaordinary to tell, wi'h tie (X (< epu n of a little biuise on the hack of it* beau, it "ri* perfectly sound and unhu t. Tlie only complaint it made whs that it was hungry, being neatly twenty-seven boms uiu'er the ground. To inquire* made of i(, it repli- a that it saw a light, and he.nd it thunder. From the nature ot the pit, it appeared that the little fellow had fallen a perpendicular (fist.mcc of forty fet t, upon a sJope or bend m the shaft, and fiom that place had sliied down twenty feet fu-tliei to the spot where lie was lound, Itamnsf against a sort of pillar or wa'l, nnd gazi"g upwind. How he escaped instant de^tru( tion is beyond all account.

Wind of a Ball. — Old soldiers are proverbially fond of story-telling, and perhaps rival the baibms in this respect, It is natural enough tlmt they should like to recount the deeds they have done ; and, as Goldsmith says, " shoulder the crutch, and show how fields aie won." You osk that poor fellow with the wooden-leg how it was that he lost his limb? — you suppose it was a cannon bull that struck it. "Oh dear 110, sir ; it wns from the wind only. The leg was no more touched than your own ; the skin all unbioken and unbiuised; but the bone crushed and soft. 'Jhe ball," sn^s he, " must have passed close by it." On this subject even piofe."> e ional men have been in some hesitation : but I mil quote the words of a very eminent army surgeon, who has only lately been removed j.'&m amongbt us. Mr. Samuel Cooper say«. "A cannon-ball, especially when nearly spent, frequently stakes the surface of the body or a limb obliquely, rind i& reflected without bienking the i skm. A soldier may Lp killed in this way without any appearance of external violence. His comiades suppose, theiefore, that ho Las been killed by the wind uj a ball! But the error of this opinion is immediately manifest when it is remembered that cannon-balls often carry away parts of (he dress without doing any harm to the peison." Mr. Druitr, the author of a valuable little manual of surgery, accounts for these so-called wind-contusions in a similar manner \ and quotes the celebiated Baron Lnrrey in support of his views. — Popular Fallacies.