A TERRIBLE ADVENTURE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 148, 11 October 1876, Page 3

A TERRIBLE ADVENTURE.

0a tfciday night, Jane U>, at a dance ,(j Bsunsen's Ranch, €*ree» springs, in L lower past of California, and, after (hneintf had get well under way, two yoiuuf men, named Turn Adams and Joe ftuwuattv stepped out, intending to visit a nuiuthboring house for the purpose of procuring cigars for a social smoke together. r fJw aight was unusually darts, nothing being discemable a foot distant. Conjjniwntiy the two men proceeded slowly, Misting to their knowledge of the locality lo carry then* iff. the* direction they wished to take. Suddenly, and without the least Miming whatever, their feet slipped from under them, an<£ the next instant they fait themselves phmged downwards neck d«»fr fe stem »«<* water. They bid fallen into awoM ahait* dropping at least forty fust ftrotathe edge. Fortunately, both landed o» their feet, and the mad at the bottom prevented then* front being bruised in. {ha fall. A n«w danger, however, tmniudiately presented itself namely, in the quicksand. Both made desperate efforts to keep their heads above the water, bat in doing so nearly suffocated from immersion. \dums at last caught hold of a projection in. the side ol the shaft, and although MiDSßSsnig bttt one arm, succeeded in heldita on until Russian climbed over him and i reached the mouth of the shaft. Russian thua called for help, and the party at Bnmsen's was soon on the spot, No ropes wore procurable, and something had to- bo done immediately to save Adams from itoaMi irv tile bottom of the pit. Men think very rapidly in cases o£ imminent danger, one of the crowd around the top of tiie shaft proposed that the most muscular form themselves into a chain and drop into the shaft. This was acted upon at once. The heaviest man was held by one arm by several men at the month eK the shaft,and a second man atidod into the shaft clinging to his waist. A third man did likewise, grasping the second man's waist,, and each successive link tn the human chain did likuwiso until the bottom was coached, and Adams dragged from his awful predicament. Through the mutual assistance o£ Adams himself and his friends ha managed to reach tha top, completely ttthaustad, as were Ills bravo rescuers, it was indeed a narrow escape for both young man from a horrible death, and a creditable action on th-.> part of those who undertook in this novel and dangerous, manner to-rescue Adams. .—tioiwifHt Dtvw omJ.