A WOMAN IN ICE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1660, 15 November 1887, Page 3

A WOMAN IN ICE.

, “ A strange story,” says Sunlight comes from America, bearing evidence of the wonderful magnifying power of ice- It appears that a party of friends recently went to the coal banks, located about 20 miles from Trout lake, Washington territory. The third night out they camped near the famous ice caves in that vicinity, and ■ not being pressed for time, the party resolved to explore them. A halfmile distant from the caves is a large fissure through the basalt. One of the- party, named Kennedy said he ■had visited the spot last summer, at which time the fissure was in places V ■ filled with ice, and in others open to an unfathomable depth. Now comes an almost incredible phase of the party’s exporlation. ‘ Early in the ■ succeeding morning,’ to relate the adventure in the language of a member of the party, ‘Kennedy and I found the fissure so elaborately described by . him the preceding evening, it being V completely filled with ice of singular • clearness presenting a surface of gentle undulations, appearing much r *s if, the Pacific Ocean near. Panama : had been instantaneously frozen over. We travelled several hundred yards

along the edge of the fissure, admiring -•.the prismatic rays reflected from its yfurface, when I was startled by a sudden cry from Kennedy, who \yas . intensely excited. I approached him, impressed with tbe idea that he had become insane. He had dropped on his htmds and knees and, with an abnormal expression depicted upon his ; face, his eyes were intently staring Into the chrystalline depths. Following his wild gaze, I beheld, at an apparent depth of 20ft the head and ■boulders of a gigantic woman, with eyes wide open and beautiful complexion. The'facej So.far as I could . Judge, - was well proportioned, tbe : mose somewhat retrousse. Her gown, - or what we coaid see of it about the : .■ neck and shoulders, was constructed : of a rich material. The rest of the body was indistinct, owing to some flaw in the ice. The face seemed about 6ft in length, the features appearing strangely familiar. Nothing was said of this discovery till the following morning, when we all visited the enormous fissure, taking with us a crude mining outfit and resolved to dig the woman out of the ice. The first day we reached a depth of 14ft., hut were determined to recover tbe huge, well-preserved corpse. That , night we pondered upon how the . •; woman got there, and when. Did she belongs to a prehistoric race! But then her attire was so much like that of the present day. However, who knows but what she was contemporaneous with the mastodon, whose

bones tell us of their prehistoric existence in the north-west? We all tried to sleep, but in rain, so excited were we ; and we sat smoking about the camp fire all that blessed night, speculating as to what the next day’s research might bring forth. At the first streak of daylight labor was resumed, but we had to work cautiously as the fine ice had obscured the body from view. By noon a depth of 21ft had been obtained, and Pulton relieved me,, taking his turn in the ice shaft. About three o’clock Kennedy, who had been remarkably quiet while at work, requested to be hauled up. When he reached the surface he placed a piece of ice a foot square, at my feet, then he threw himself upon the ground rolling over and over in a most alarmand hysterical manner. In reply to my anxious appeal to him for an explanation of his strange conduct he only pointed to the chunk of ice he brought up. Examining it I saw a piece of cardboard embedded in it, which proved on one side to be an advertising card, with the picture of a beautiful woman on it, and bearing at the bottom some words of advice as to the use of a certain saponaceous manufacture. How did it get there ? Perhaps thrown in last summer by some tourists, covered by the winter’s ice, and costing five men two days’ work to recover, simply because the ice, by its varying density and peculiar shape, had magnified the picture a hundredfold, and lent it a natural appearance.