Narrow Escape from Staryation.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3105, 16 January 1889, Page 3

Narrow Escape from Staryation.

From Theodore Roaseyell's paper on, "Frontier Types," which has appeared in the Inst number of the Century, we quote the following description of one of his trappers, a French Canadian: "Once or twice, ha allowed a curious reluctance about allowing us to approach him suddenly behind, Altogether his actions rwere so odd that I felt some curiosity to learn his history. It' turned out that he had been through a rather uncauny experience the winter bofore, He and another man had gone into a remote basin, or enclosed valley, in the heart of tlio. mountains, where game was very plentiful, indeed it was so abundant thstthey decided to pass the winter there. Accordingly they put up a log cabin, working hard and merely killing enough meat for ' their immediate use. Just as it was finished winter set in with tremendous enow storms. Going out to hunt in the first lull they found, to their consternation that every head of gamo had left the valloy. Not an animal was to be found therein; they had abandoned it for their winter hajmts, The outlook , for the two adventurers was appalling, They were afraid of trying to break out through the deep snowdrifts and starvation stared them in the face if they Btayed. The man that I met had hiß dog with him., They, put themselves on very short commons, so as j\ to use up their flour as slowly as and hunted unweariedly, but Baw nothing.. Soon a violent quarrel broke out between them, . The other . man, a .fierce sullen fellow, insisted that the dog should he killed, but the owner, was exceedingly-attached to it ■and refused. For n couple of weeks toy Bpb no words to e»b'other

though cooped in the little narrow pen of logs.; Then one i.ight ihe owner of the dog was awakened by the animal crying out; tho oilier uiun had tried to kili it with his knifo, but failed, The provisions were now almost exhausted, and \tiie two uicu were glaring at each other: with the rage of maddened ravaging hunger, Neither dared to sleep for fear that the other would kill liini. The one who owned the dog at last spake, and proposed that to give each a chance for his life they should separate, He would take half of the handful of flour that was left and start oil', to try to get home; the other should stay where he was, and if he tried to follow tho first was warned tliutlm would bo shot without mercy,, A like fate was to be the portion of the wanderer if driven to return to the hut. The arrangement was agreed to, and the two men separated, neither daring to turn his back while they were in rifle shot of each other, 'For two days the one who went off toiled with weary weakness through the snowdrifts, Late on the second afternoon as lie looked back from a high ridge, ho saw in the distance <t black spack against tho snow, coming along on his trail, His companion was dodging bis footsteps. Immediately he followed his own tracks back a little, am) lay in ambush, At dusk his' companion came 'stealthily up, rifle in hand, peering cautiously ahead, his drawn face showing the starved, eager ferocity of a wild beast, and the man he was hunting shot him down exactly as if he had been one, Leaving the body where it fell, the wanderer continued his journey, the dog staggering painfully behiud him, . The next evening he,baked his last cako and divided it with his dog. In the morning with his belt drawn slill tighter round his skeleton body, lie sot out with apparently only a fow hours between him and death, At noon ho crossed the track of a huge timber wolf; instantly the dog gave tongue, and, rallying hisstrength ran along the trail. The man : struggled after, At last his strength gavo out and he sat down to die; but whilo sitting still, slowly stiffening with tho cold, he heard the dog baying in tho woods, Shaking off his mortal numbness, he crawled towards the sound, and found tho wolf over the body of a deer that he had just killed, and keeping the dog from it, At the approach of the now assailant the wolf suddenly drew off, and the man and dog tore the raw deer flesh with hideous eagerness. It made them sick for the next 24 hours; but ving by the carcase for two or three days, they recovered strength,