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Show SAVED BY STILTS FROM LAVA HEAT Tourist Watched Too Long Old Mauna Loa's Flow. i i ,m NEW RIVER GUI HIM OFF. I Cut Ironwood With Penknif and i Reached Friends Just as On of the Improvised Implements Burned to Ashes Under tho Strain. WALKING on stilts Is lmnl enough nt the best, even for tlio experts in Boutlivru France, who work lu tho tnnrslies with them nnil whoso equipment equip-ment is ns near perfection as mny he. but to walk on an extemporized pair made out of Ironwood with a pocket knife and to do tho walking through a "jT river of red hot Inva is a feat that has occurred only ouee so far as record; show. The hero of it is an Knullslunnn named Watson, who with a party was looking over the wonders of the great volcano Mnunn I .on. in the Sandwich I Islund9. They had spent the night on the edge of the crater, and nest morn- ' Ing Mr. Watson wandered otT alone to investigate the Inva stream thut flows down tho southern side of the moun- , tain. Observed Scene Too Long. Reaching the strcnic. he sat down i -" - under the shelter of u promontory or ' i rocks and gazed upon the great slow j river of fire flowing before him. it followed a straight course down tho j mountains, while at some distance be- ' low it entered a thicket of trees which j seemed as he watched It through his Klass to have remarkable puwers of i resisting cwmbustlon from the redhot Java. ; Mr. Watson lingered to watch this i 6ight until almost noon, when he start ed to return to camp As he turned, leaving the lava stream at his back, he saw another stream before him. Soon Hhe perceived that he was caught between be-tween two lavn streams, cutting hltn off from earn p. While Watson had been sitting beneath the rock the fctream of lava hud widened, and the rock that sheltered him had divided jiirr.i'r.i'lL'Tr rMV ,"wt'n.t-' ,lmv" '" his left as well as to his right. Trapped by Fire Rivera. It occurred to Mr. Watson that he could go down the streams and doubt-less doubt-less get around the head of the new one and -o eM-ape. Rut before he had gone far 'he discovered Hint the new stream united with the old one a stunt distance farther down the mountain, j The Englishman was now on an bland of solid ground with a river of lire j all around him. He looked about him in despair, and as he did so his eyes TliCOKT TOL'HIKT tN MIDDLE Or 1IED HOT LAVA STliCAU. I fell on the patch of woods which be liud alreadj noticed as evldeutly pos- Besslng the property of resisting the Are in some way. He ran to this nnd eaw that some of the trees were small. Then, drawing a small knife from 1 his pocket, he hewed with it nt the base of one of the smaller trees, in- tending to make stilts on which to -, walk through the lava. It was iron- j ' -wood and resisted his small knife blade "- almost like Iron. em' No Sleep For Him. . ' Bv davbreak his stilts were ready. ' no mounted them and started straight ' r through the lava stream. The stilts ' smoked and sizzled, but did not burn. '. T He wns obliged to walk lowly and J feel with the foot of each stilt for. looe stones, for a fall would mean ' L only one thing-Instant cremation. Nor did he dare look un where but ut the lowly tlowing lava, although his eyes nearly popped out of his bead from the v torturing heat I He did not fall, and at last be camo r th farther edre of the utreoro. 'I I f mere, to ms great joy. no saw people nwnltlng him. Ills friends bad conn-In conn-In sonreh of hltn aud. encountering the lavn stream, had conjectured that he ith" beyond It. Seeing him npproaehlng. they met hltn at Its edge. As he reached out to them one of his stilts burned entirely off. hut as he fell he was caught and pulled to the solid ground. He was severely hut not fatally burned and In a rancher's house received such care n ml surgical attention that he was toon able to start on his trip for home. |
