The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-01-11

Both carriers yelled and in a minute
we were in the water. AS we all had
hands on the boat we saved ourselves,
the carriers without getting much of
wetting. 1 was more clumsy than
they and got pretty damp before 1
could scramble into the boat.
Creeping over Thin Ice.
''They made me sit down in the
stern and wrap myself we'll up to
keep from taking cold. Then they
'crept' the boat for the next half mile.
Creeping is necessary when the ice
is too solid to allow of sailing, pol
ing or rowing and at the same time
not strong enough to bear the weight
of a man.
Compared with Creeping mere
towing the sledge- boat is the mildest
child's play. The men kneeI, one on
each side of the boat. one with his
right the other with his left leg inside
the craft. Then with the other leg
outside each laboriously walks on the
thin ice with one foot thus half push
ing, half pulling the boat through the
rotten, pliable mass of half frozen wa
ter. Steel muscled though the Bass
Island mail carriers must of necessity
be, few minutes of creeping is quite
enough and after a half mile of it they
are fairly drenched with perspiration
and trembling from fatigue, while their
muscles ache as if they had been
pounded with sledge hammers.
The rotten ice was followed by
stretch of open water nearly a mile
wide. If the wind had been right the
carriers would have stepped their ten
foot mast in the bow of the boat
spread their spirit sail and so had Il
brief period of rest. AS it was all
hands had to take to the oars. The
och 49,
as high as steeples; every one broke
over US and everything in the craft was
soaked. l thought my time had come
Tor sure. One of the carriers had to
go to the stern and steer with an ex-
ira oar-the boat had no rudder-and
| had to take my trick at the rowing.
l was inclined mentally to object to
this at first, but 1 was glad 1 didn't.
| was shaking with a chill when I be-
gan, but by the time we got to fairly
| good ice again the exercise had warm
ed me through and l was in no dan
| ger OF pneumonia, the one disease of
| winch the carriers are mortallY afraid
After the open water we hauled the
boat up on the ice stern foremost, and
again had to tow and push it over the
| frozen surface Of the lake Here the
ice was hummocky and rough, and, be-
| fore we had gone very far a driving
benumbed us, despite all we could do.
| How we ever made the remainder of
| the three miles to South Bass I can't
| imagine, but we landed at about dusk,
| left our boat at South Dock and were
| driven two miles across the island
After that there was stretch of two
| miles and a half to Middle Bass over
| the ice-thank heaven it was solid
! with a second boat We tramped across
| Middle RaSS q nj
carriers backing the mail pouches that
were going to Isle st. George. and then
took third sledge-boa for our last
| mile and a half stretch of ice. Fortu-
nately it. too. was solid.
| when / turned in at near midnight
| my emotions were a mixture of thank
| fulness that I was still alive and of
fear that I'd be drowned on the re-
| turn trip. But 1t was comparatively
uneventful. though it took us nine
| hours to reach the mainland -
There are many such stories to be
heard on the Bass Islands Once a
passenger was careless and let go of
| the boat when the ice was broken into
vast floes. which were slowly moving
down the lake with a grinding motion
| and a force that ould crush ANYTHING
| which came in the way. A big snow
storm was on and in moment he was
| afioat on great cake of ice moving
so rapidly from the boat and the car
| riers that they were soon lost to sight
in the swirling flakes. He was wet to
| the skin. having been working like a
| Trojan with pike for an hour or more.
helping to pole the boat along and he
| dared not stand still. despite the dan
| ger of stepping off the cake of ice, for
| fear he'd freeze. Pretty soon the big
cake broke UP and he found himself
| on a smaller one. not ten feet across
Two big foes crushed it and he saved
| himself only by jumping to one of
them. In despair he gave himself up
for lost when suddenly the storm abat-
ed so that he could be seen and he was
presently rescued, sound but almost
scared to death.
Told by the Carriers.
The carriers themselves tell stories
sometimes. One carrier who was
crossing with horse and sleigh when
the ice was solid got lost in a snow
storm and Travelled round and round
in circle for nearly forty hours. 1t
wasn't very cold-though tempera-
lures away below zero are common
between the mainland and the islands
or he'd have frozen to death. He
happened to have box of crackers
along. and that kept him from getting
hungry.
George Morrison and George Axtell,
are taciturn chapus before strangers
but in the year or two they have been
on the route they have had their own
adventures. Luke Meyers of South
Bass, who has been extra man occa-
sionally, had a decidedly strenuous
experience one day two or three years
ago.
1--WE started out from South Bass
in good shape with a lady passenger
on board,' says Meyers. 1.-THE water
was fully of heavy drift ice and we mad
to use both poles and oars. When
we were a quarter of a mile from
shore a cold fog, so thick you could
hardly see a boat length, shut down
on us. We had a compass, of course,
and we steered due south all the time.
Now that was where we made our
mistake. We forgot that there was
a strong drift to the east or down the
lake, and we ought to have steered
strong southwest so as to have off,
set the drift.
AS it was we tugged and toiled
and poled and rowed in the fog hours
and hours. We worked so hard that
we didn't suffer none from the cold,
but we kept getting uneasy and UNI
easier, and by II or 1 o'clock we knew
we were lost. The lady passenger
she got mighty cold after a time, and
then she got Fighter, and then she
got to moaning and Arying, and that
didn't help keep up our spirits none,
not, a bit, sir BY 8 or half past I
amt ashamed to say that we were all
pretty we'll scared, besides being all
tuckered out. I'll admit that I'd about