LOST IN THE BUSH.

Shannon News, 15 February 1924, Page 4

LOST IN THE BUSH.

WOMAN’S TERRIBLE SUFFERING.

Sydney, January 27. The story of the wond’erful fidelity of a dog and the fortitude of a woman in surviving terrible privations while lost in the bush have been revealed by the dptails of her sufferings related in the Bundabcrg hospital by Mrs. John Williams. „ T .. . Mrs. Williams lives near Wallum m a lonely and wild part of Queensland, and it transpires that while fetching a bucket full of water from the creek she temporarily lost hpr memory supposed- ; ly the effect of the terrible heat that has recently' been experienced—and wandered oft* into thp bush. When the settlers learnt that she was missing they turned out to a man, as they always do in such emergencies, and scoured the district for miles round. _ Days passed, and it was thought that it was impossible that without food slip could have survived the blazing heat. .Still they persevered/ the police and blacktrackers participating in the search. Sometimes the traekprs would pick up the scent and follow it for a while, but over the rough parched g.omid and through the thick lcUi it .was continually being lost. Then rain fell, and this, as it turned out, probably saved the woman’s life, for it providentially pnabled her to get some water when the pangs of thirst had become almost intolerable. Heartened by the conjecture that this might be the the scaichers persevered, and at the e; u of a week from the time she was first missing, when all but forlorn hope had been given up, a poor, miserable little dog, emaciated and bedraggled,. limped up to a black-tracker and policeman. Following the dog through dense scrub they came upon the woman sheltering from the rain in a hollow stump. Almost too exhausted to speak, she asked the black-tracker if he had been looking for her, and when he answered m the affirmative she answered, “I am glad you found mo alive. God bless you all, ’ ’ and practically collapsed. It was with difficulty that she was carried over thp rough.country to the township, but on reaching the hospital the doctor was surprised to find that, inspito of having been a full week without food 'and several days without water until the rain foil, she was in a fairly good state of hpalth. Her clothes were torn, her feet terribly sore, and her face burnt by the sun, but she quickly responded to the careful treatment, and whpn she could tell her story her principal theme was the devotion of the little dog, which had refused steadfastly to leave her, though suffering equally from want of food and exposure to the sun. “Thin and limping,”, shle said, ‘‘ it would jump up and follow me whenever I made another effort to find my way to some habitation. I tried to induce it to return home, thinking it might find it on its own, but it would cower and whine if I did anything which made it think that I was angry. I think it was its self-sacrifice and bravery and its company which helped me to keep up and live through all those nights with nothing to look forward to but another of those awful burning days. ’ ’