Southwest Washington labor press. [volume] (Hoquiam, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1924-08-29

ago. The breakup occurred while
the carrier was transporting the mail
to this side over the ice with horse
and sleigh. The ice became so
thoroughly broken up that in a very
short time the carrier found himself
on an ice cake barely large and heavy
enough to hold him and his equip
ment. The Coast Guard crew, having
noticed his plight, came to the res
cue. They succeeded in getting a
line out to the carrier and then tow
ed the whole cake over the solid
ice and the carrier was enabled to
walk on to more solid ice and thereby
reached the mainland.
"When the carrier cannot find sol
id ice on which to travel he usually
resorts to his motor launch. This he
has conveniently moored inside the
edge of the heavy ice with channel
cut away to open water.
"Here he may have to buck new ice
for long distances and travel through
slush ice which will be eight or 10
feet deep and oftentimes impossible.
In such circumstances, he has to re-
turn and seek out new openings in the
ice fields. Sometimes his boat is
caught in drifting ice fields and car
ried out into Lake Michigan and fore
ed to stay out over night. Finding
suitable landing places on either shore
during the winter, cutting off all ac-
cess to docks. Then the carrier must
either land along the beaches wher-
ever the surf will permit or an
Choir his boat in deep navigable wa
ter and ferry the mail into shore in
a rowboat, then carry the mail bags
over the ice banks and hummocks to
the waiting team on land.
Another mode of carrying the
mail is by the use of the ice boat.
1.-THE carrier attaches ropes to the
gunwales forward and hauls the boat
along the ice like a sled. When open
water is encountered he launches the
boat, takes his place at the oars and
pulls for the other side. This sounds
exceedingly simple to the uninitiated
but the difficulty comes when attempt
ing to launch the boat from the edge
of the ice. Naturally, there is a
wide belt of slush ice and small cakes
caused by the seas pulverizing the
outskirts Of the ice foes. Some times
the seas are so heavy that they will
dash the small boat back on the solid
ice. At other times the cakes that
comprise this belt of broken ice are
too heavy to row through. When this
happens the carrier leaps out on the
cakes and holding on to the gunwale
of the boat pushes it along toward
open water, leaping back into the
boat when his footing has disap-
peared.
''The wonder of it all is that there
are not frequent drownings but l
know of no loss of life while carry
ing mail across Deaths Door. Nat
urally, with all these difficulties to
overcome, there are periods when the
carrier is unable to cross, quite fire.
quently for five or six days at time.
During these delays, mail is piling up
at the Ellison Bay postofiice, making
it quite a problem for the already
overworked carrier as to how to
transport such a large volume of mail
with the means at hand. These pc
RODS of non-mail delivery are trying
to the one thousand inhabitants on
Washington Island, since the parcel
post system affords the only means
in winter to procure supplies, medi-
cine and other commodities. These
conditions will continue to exist as
long as the mail is transported along
the surface Of the water. Perhaps
the airplane will solve the problem
in the future. Why mott"