The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1890-03-07
A RACE FOR LIFE.
Saved by the Superior Intelligence
Of My Horse, "Jeannie."

OGVSu ny In0 superior lQC0luQ0uC0
Of My Horse, "Jeannie."
The winter of 1886 81 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 a 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 it's
back primitive forest of pine, larch
and hemlock stretched westward nearly
to Lake Michigan.
A single highway following the sinu-
oslties 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 closed the second week in No
vember, month earlier than common
Phenomenal snow storms followed, and
by Christmas-t time the ground was hid
den by snow nearly four feet deep.
The region was healthful-loggers are
VIGOROUSLY hardy and robust men-and
my duties consequently were not oner-
Gus or exacting but l had not antici-
pated so severe 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
the 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" fisherman, familiar
ly known as The Commodore" entered
the company's counting room and offered
for sale a 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 namaycush, salmo namaycush.
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
well, imagine sixty or seventy fathoms
of cotton clothes line" of nearly the
diameter of ones little finger toggled to
the ringed end of a huge hook Of home
manufacture, the hooks shank en-
braced by spindle-shaped lead of three
Or four pounds weight. Behold a
Snatch
The four resident representatives of
the company, its Junior" '.superin-
tendent," ''store-keeper" and doctor"
one and all, were ardent fishermen The
upshot of the Commodore's visit was
that we engaged him to initiate US into
the mysteries of "snatching.' The
company's warehouse and the skill of
the local blacksmith supplied the
necessary tishing-gear.
Fishing through the ice, whether by
''snatching" or in other ways, is far
from being a genial or enhancing pas
time. though it IS superior to ennui
When it comes to ones spending hour
after hour in the midst of 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 .frOstbite to face, hands OF
feet, the situation is any thing but a
'.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 for
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 wss
our indispensa BILE companion, owing to
his superior knowledge and experience.
He alone could locate in all this vast
frozen wilderness the huge reef nine
miles from shore near which large trout
were wont to conaegate-a reef that
reared it's jagged walls sixty fathoms
above the lake-bed, We. did not come
within a hundred feet of the surface.
AS may be supposed, our fishing expe-
ditions were not unattended with ad-
ventures. Once when out of sight OF
land We were caught in a binding snow
storm and wandered about until night
fall when, happily, we made South
Point, where there was the shanty of .
lone fisherman" who enacted the part Of
the Good Samaritan, drying us, feeding
US and sending US on our way rejoicing.
Once. on turning line of ice-hum-
mocks about seven miles from shore. we
were met face to face by five gaunt gray
wolves, evidently just over from her
Majesty's dominion. At the sight of US
away they scurried, going down lake,
with bodies fairly hugging the ice in
mad anxiety to annihilate space. They
were followed by chorus of yells from
us that served the double purpose of
stimulating them to greater efforts and
OF recalling the forgotten courage that