The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1890-01-30
A RACE FOR LIFE.
Saved by the Superior Intelligence
of My Horse, "Jeannie."

Saved by the Superior Intelligence
of My Horse, "Jeannie."
The winter of 1sSO-S1 was of excep-
tional severity as felt in Michigan. 1t
found me occupying the position of sur
geon to numbering company, and was
stationed at small hamlet on Lake
Huron midway between Saginaw and
Thunder bays. On either side of this
hamlet there was no settlement nearer
than thirty miles away, while at its
back a primitive forest of pine, larch
and hemlock stretched westward nearly
to Lake Michigan.
A single highway following the sinu-
osities of the coast connected our settle
ment with the outer world, but this
road was practically impossible in win
ter In the season of which / write nav
igation clos d the second week in No
vember, a month earlier than common.
Phenomenal snow-storms followed, and
by ChristmaS-ti time the ground was hid
den by snow nearly four feet Deep
The region was healthful-loggersa are
my duties consequently were not oner-
Gus or exacting, but I had not antici-
pated so severe a season, and so had not
made adequate provision for the amuse-
ment of my idle moments. Deprived of
books, shooting rendered impossible by
the depth of the snow and by the in
roads of wolves that drove the game to
She Businesses of the interior forests,
time soon hung heavily with me and my
associates, and an incident that prom
ised to relieve the monotony of our life
was welcomed.
One morning about two months after
our shutting in" a fisherman, familiar
ly known as 1.-THE Commodore" entered
the com pany's counting-room and offered
for sale magnificent specimen of the
Mackinac salmon, or Great Amethystine
trout-the Na-ma-go-oes of the Otchip-
ives, whence scientists derive the spe-
cific title of nanaaycush, salmo nanaycush.
How this huge fish could have been
obtained was something of puzzle to
me, since Lake Huron was frozen from
shore to shore, and this great trout
brought in by the fisherman could only
have come from the deep waters of mid
lake.
Inquiry revealed the fact that the fish
had been ''snatched," or caught through
the ice with snatch. A SNATCH is
we'll, imagine sixty or seventy fathoms
of cotton CLOTHES line" of nearly the
diameter of ones little finger toggled to
the ringed end of huge hook of home
manufacture, the hooks shank EN-.
braced by a spindle-shaped lead of three
or four pounds weight. Behold a
''snatch."
The four resident representatives OF
the. company, its Junior" ''superin.
tendant," "store-keeper" and "doctor, y
one ard all, were ardent fishermen. The
upshot of the Commodore's visit was
that we engaged him to initiate us into
the mysteries of scratching" The
companys warehouse and the skill OF
the local blacksmith supplied the
necessary fishing-gear.
Fishing through the ice, whether by
scratching" or in other ways, is fal
from being genial or enhancing pas
time, though it is superior to ennui
When it comes to ones spending houl
after hour in the midst of a frozen plain
where the thermometer persistently hugs
the wrong side of zero, exposed to
winds that chill the fisherman to the
very marrow; when the least careless
ness means trost6ite to face, hands OF
feet, the situation is any thing but q
''soft" one.
Trout became so plentiful at our table
that they ceased to awaken appetite in
us: but this circumstance in no way
modified our enjoyment in fishing fol
them, and the ''snatches" were in pretty
constant use throughout the winter
The fish that we caught in excess Of
our immediate wants were given to the
Commodore, who picked them to sell.
-Four or five fish was the usual reward
of days fishing. The Commodore was
our Indispensable companion, owing tx
his superior knowledge and experience
He alone could locate in all this vas
frozen wilderness the huge reef nine
miles from shore near which large trout
were won't to congregate-a reef that
reared its jagged walls sixty fathoms
above the lake-bed, yet did not come
within hundred feet of the surface.
AS may be supposed, our fishing expe
ditions were not unattended with ad
ventures. Once when out of sight o
land we were caught in a binding snow
storm and wandered about until night
fall, when, happily, we made Soutl
Point, where there was the shanty of g
''lone fisherman" who enacted the part o
the Good Samaritan, drying US, feeding
us and sending us on our way rejoicing
Once, on turning a line of ice-hum
mocks about seven miles from shore, W,
were met face to face by five gaunt gra.
wolves, evidently just over from hel
Majesty's dominion. At the sight Of Vi
away they scurried, going down lake
with bodies fairly hugging the ice i,
mad anxiety to annihilate space. The,
were followed by chorus of yells from
us that served the double purpose o
stimulating them to greater efforts ant
of recalling the forgotten courage tina
somehow had gone into retirement ii
the vicinity Of our boots; but we had lit
tie to fear from the animals, for tn,
American wolf is sneaking and despic
able brute at best. and any thing bu
the ferocious creature depicted in fiction
and in the popular works Of natural his
/, tory.
Our final expedition was made on tn