A MARINE ADVENTURE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 313, 25 April 1877, Page 4

A MARINE ADVENTURE.

A rather -amusing incident wtuch might. however, hare been attended with very serious consequences, took place on Saturday afternoon in connection with an tic excursion indulged in hy two welt known citizens,. both, we believe, in the share-broking and commission business, who entrusted themselves fov the -occasion to a small boat ami the tender mercies of & youthful scion of the-nautical profession —rather addicted to- practical jokes. The party started from St. Leonard's, and welt victualled both as to liquid's and- solids; after a somewhat lengthened cruise reached the sandbank in the middle of the harbour at dead tow water, when it is dry enough to admit of perambulating in the search for oysters and cockles. Having: refreshed the inner man, our fellowcitizen, whom we will call X, set off for a stroll over the banks, leaving his companions: enjoying, a comfortable smoke in the boat, with the understanding that they were to Keep him in sight, and follow him for re-embarkation so soon as the tide began to> rise. X, happy in blind faith, wandered on, filling the bags he had with him with suckles, and soon found the sand yielding more and more tmder his feet—the tide was rising fast; it was also getting dusk; he could just see the fooat'in the disiance, and as it did m>t appear to be moving towards him, he set up a series of unintelligible yells, intended for cooeys, which were heard, it appears, on both aides of the harbour, but were naturally ascribed to excited seagulls. The water lose higher and higher, and the yells of poor X reverberated over the water. .Vow what had been going on in the boat f The occupants had both fallen asleep over their pipes, at least one certainly had. There are doubts as to the young imp of the sea but when the former woke up suddenly the latter was, or pretended to be r sound asleep. Where was X i They looked round m every direction. Tide making fast—no signs of him. Sea-imp suggested he might haw walked home. fcut as this implied the crossing a channel some fifteen feet deep and half a rude wide, it was rejected as unlikely. Xow shouts from the shore attracted* their at- i teationy they skirted the edge of the bard-, eventually sighting the head of X, ]mt (and that was all) above water. How he was got into the boat, and the language hj» used on the occasion, there is no> need to describe, but he has given Ms family to understand thai this is his last water el- . ovosion for the season,—Uunedin tftor.