from its moorings, drifting down the current; a moment afterwards the
owner arrived in breathless haste, to endeavour to save it from
destruction; his exertions were, however, useless, and, finding there
was no alternative, he hailed the bystanders, and offered the reward of
a dollar to any one who would swim to and paddle the canoe on shore;
this offer was eagerly caught at by a tall man, of great muscular power,
who was amongst the crowd, and who at once threw off his coat and
plunged into the stream. This was very rapid, and, after a few moments
battling with the turbid current, he was overpowered; uttering a loud
cry for assistance, which I shall never forget and which rang in my ears
like a death knell, he disappeared from the view of the spectators, and,
being probably entangled in the trees and debris that were floating down
the torrent, he did not rise again. A loud wail arose from the terrified
assemblage, who were unable to render the poor fellow any assistance,
and who ran about in frantic excitement. The canoe was lost, being
carried at a rapid rate into the open lake, where it capsized, and sunk
immediately. After dragging for the body for upwards of an hour, it was
fished up from under some logs of timber moored some distance below
where the catastrophe occurred. The body being landed and placed on the
bank, a loud altercation ensued as to the means to be used to attempt
resuscitation--a vain hope--but still persisted in by those assembled.
Some wanted to roll it on a barrel, others to suspend it by the heels,
that the water might be voided. At length a doctor arrived, and, after
some inquiry, pronounced effort useless, from the time the body had been
under water. This at once damped the ardour of the crowd, although it
did not discourage a female, who had taken a prominent part in the
operations, and who, with that true womanly tenderness and solicitude
which do honour to her sex, and which are nowhere more conspicuous than
in America, insisted upon the corpse being taken to a neighbouring
house, where, like a ministering angel, she persevered in her efforts