Danbury Times

Dreadful Situation. The Southport, Wisconsin American of Nov. 10th, says that Mr. David Wells, of Racine, was severely burnt a few days since; being in a thick marsh which had been set on fire, and unable to escape from the flames, he laid down for the fire to pass over him, when his clothes caught and were nearly consumed. When found an half an hour afterwards his neck handkerchief was still on fire. It is added that small hopes were entertained of his recovery.

The perilous expedient of the unfortunate sufferer above spoken of, is one that hunters on the western prairies not unfrequently resort to, when unexpectedly hemmed in by the annual burnings that sweep like a sea of fire over those vast plains. But they take the precaution of covering their bodies with hide, when at hand, as they generally are, and which they find a sufficient protection from the heat and flames. A green buffalo hide, particularly, proves an ample shield to the prostrate hunter, when, 'like the Scorpion, girt by fire.' An instance of this kind, is graphically and powerfully told by Cooper, in one of his novels—the 'Prairie' it must have been. In the case of Mr. W. however, the fire was much fiercer from the great abundance of fuel afforded by the dry, tangled marsh, than those of the prairies, which only lick up the tall withered grass, and pass onward, with the speed of the wind, leaving behind 'a broad and blackened path of desolation'—Buffalo Com. Adv.