REMARKABLE EXPERIENCES OF A LOST CHILD.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1152, 25 September 1883, Page 3

REMARKABLE EXPERIENCES OF A LOST CHILD.

A Chicago paper publishes the following despatch from Pittsburg : About two months ago the four-year-old daughter of James Wilson, a well-to-do farmer in Westmoreland County, of this State, disappeared from her home. Parents and triends searched for her for weeks, but could discover no trace of her, and they finally gave her up for lost. They supposed she had either been stolen by tramps or had fallen over one of the many precipices in the vicinity arid been killed, and the body devoured by hogs. Yesterday as a lad named Greene was walking along a creek in pursuit of game, he observed something moving about in the bashes a few rode ahead of him, At short intervals it sent forth a peculiar cry, which bore a strong resemblance to the human voice. He approached cautiously, hut the object discovered him, and fled through the woods at great speed. Seeing it was a child, and believing it

was the long missing daughter of his neighbor Wilson, ho pursued, and, after a long chase, overtook it, but its capture was not an easy task. The child fought like a tiger, and only his superior strength enabled him to overcome it. It was entirely naked, its hair was long and matted, its finger nails had grown to the length of bird’s claws, and it was browned by the sun and stained from head to foot with berryjuice. It was unable to articulate a word. He carried the child home, where, after it was washed, it was recognised as the missing girl, greatly to the joy of her parents. During its absence it had learned to eat frogs and crayfish, devouring them in their raw state with avidity in preference to cooked food. The place where it was found is fully ten miles from the residence of Mr Wilson. How the little thing managed to wander to such a distance, and subsisted for so long a time on what it could find in the woods and streams can only be imagined. The country through which it wandered abounds in snakes and wild cats. With good care it is thought the child will soon learn to talk again, and in a short time forget its remarkable experience in the woods.