Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1916-10-23
Writes Of Life and Experiences
On Alaska Halibut Fishing Banks

lOW, OuO ludlJ hO IhiON Oub oSe'i
carefully clearing the hooks as he
casts the line. This one same man,
he tie each skate together, and the
other man, he row-until the whole
mess is strung through the water
and buoy-kegs and anchors attached
at either end. Now comes the only
easy part of the day work, rest
of an hour or longer, while the one
man that row and the one man who
set gear, both men they snuggle
down in the bow and stern of the
dory, and smoke long, long pipe,
very we'll sheltered from the wind
and rain by the high sides Of the
boat.
But as you know, the working
classes are allowed the privileges of
rest only that they may work the
harder presently. So it is with u.s.
When that all too short respite is
over, the real work of the day be-
gins, for that whole mile and a half
of line has to be hauled into the
boat. hand over. hand, from varying
depth of from fifty to one hundred
fathoms. If you've an idea that the
pull is an easy one, by all means hire
out as a halibut fisherman. can
assure you that there have been
many times in the same day that l
have been certain that another tug
would tear the plug out from the
bottom of the Pacific. For such
emergencies we have clumsy affair,
a sort of hand winch, called gurdy,
which brings the line In even more
slowly than by hand. My partner
had his head cut open day before
Yesterday with the gurdy on our boat,
so there is always the element Oh
excitement in the operation OF one
of these labor-saving contraptions.
However. will admit that if the
line comes in easily, and If the
weather is fine (Which it almost in
variably is mott and if the catch is
pretty good and the seas are not
heavy enough to pitch you around
like a tennis ball, halibut fishing is
a fine trade. And | will be fair
enough to admit that there are mo-
ments when it seems so. | have
never been seasick in the least,
though we have been on some rough
cruises. both in the S. S. Gedney and
in the Comanche. By the time we
went to working in halibut | had
learned to handle a boat well, and
you should see how my muscles are
swelling.
| thought of you today as / lay in
the stern of our dory while the gas
boat towed us through the waters
of Sitkah Sound. For wonder. the
day was fine, with fresh land
breeze that ruffled the calm sea into
a million twinkling spots of foam.
Gulls and the great ravens OF this
northern coast scared lazily about.
A lone eagle enjoyed a sun bath on
a cedar snag. The fog of early
morning rolled back to show the new
snow cleaning on the higher noun
tains. Life on the vastly deep seemed
a splendid thing, and the wind and
the salt rain from our bow sang an
ancient song of far voyages and ven
turesome men.
sitka, the old capital Of Alaska, is
to my mind the only beautiful town
in the north. 1t has an old Russian
trading post that is massive affair
of huge logs, with trees ten feet high
growing in the deep moss of its roof
It has a little blue-andwhite dolls
house cathedral, with sacred paint
ing of the Madonna within the walls
And besides the beauty of its envir-
onment. unique even in Alaska the
beautiful. and in spite of the fact
that the place is wonderfully and
awfully dead" from the viewpoint
of the commercially minded, Sitka
has that priceless gift among great
gifts-atmosphere. One feels in
stinctively that this is at last a place
that has its roots in the soil about it,
town that has had no mushroom
birth. There is no hectic fever OF