MIRACULOUS ESCAPE.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 52, 8 May 1863, Page 2 (Supplement)

MIRACULOUS ESCAPE.

A man named James Quintan had a miraculous escape from death on Saturday. He was employed, with others, in completing some excavating on the hill side, near Rattray-street, and near the Shamrock Hotel, where a long range of stabling, of . wood and corrugated iron, has been erected by Messrs Duncan and Birch. The space necessary for the stables, and a yard, has been formed by cutting the face of the bill, thus leaving a sheer face of clay shale fully 20 feet high. To retain this, a strong bluestone wall is being erected, and only the finishing touches to the excavating for the wall were necessary. There were altogether ten men employed, under Thomas Wilson who acted as foreman. Shortly before twelve o'clock, seven or eight of the men were clustered near the comer furthest from Rattrav-street ; but the others soon went to different points, leaving together Quintan, Daniel Leeson, and John O'Dwyer, a carter. No indication of a y eilding of the bank had been observed during the forenoon ; but without the slightest warning, a great mass fell down, striking all three of the men, and knocking down and partially burying Quin lan. whose head was fortuuately not covered by debris. The men on the ground rushed to Quintan's assistance ; but they found his legs so firmly fixed by the weight of the soil that to pull him out was an impossibility. Shovels and hands were busily at work instantly ; for it was seen that the fallen materials having all come from the lower half of the face, there was a very large quantity of stuff left hanging so loosely that it miorht come down at any moment. And it did come down, with a tremendous thud, before Quintan had been nearly liberated. His helpers had to fly back to secure their own safety ; and he, guessing the reason, pressed his hands over his head, ere the mass reached him. The fall buried him nearly 6ft. deep; and his fellow-work-men, when they saw the great heap, anrl the two or three blocks of harder stuff, several feet long, and from 18 in. to-3 ft. through, which lay amongst it, and directly over where Quintan was. seem to have given him up as lost. A few words from Wilson, however, roused them, and they set to work, aided by others from the Shamrock and the neighborhood. After ten minutes or a quarter of an hour had passed, Quintan was heard to groan, and in another quarter of an hour, the soil had been cleared from ahove his head and throat. He was not insensible, and some spirits were put to his lips. Fully s') minutes, from the lime of the second fall, had elapsed before the buried one was lifted from the hole in which he tay; and it was then seen that he had suffered no severe external injury. Blankets, hot water, and othor stimulants had meanwhile been obtained ; and Dr. Wilson had the sufferer laid in one of the stalls, and attended to him there. He had at first a succession of violent shiverings; but he soon became composed, and in three-quar-ters of an hour, he was able to dress himself and walk home. He said that he felt very sore and weak, of course ; but there was no reason for fearing that he had sustained any internal injury. Two things no doubt contributed to Quinlan's most fortunate escape — his lying partially buried before the larger fall took place, and his pressing his arms over his head Had he been knocked down by the great mass, he would hive been doubled up and rendered senseless at once, with some of his limbs if not his neck broken ; but, from the circumstances named, he avoided the severe shock, and the position of his arms, while protecting his chest, left him at liberty to breathe any small quantity of air for which there was a passage through the intertices in the heap of debris. — Otago Daily Times.