Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1924-08-15

ter he says, lis drifting ice fields.
The ice bridge that forms in extreme.
ly cold weather hardly ever remains
for more than few days AZ time.
Ii is speedily dissembled by shifting
gales and currents. Sometimes this
breakup occurs SO suddenly that the
carrier is caught out on the ice with
his horse, sleigh and mail Ii Is at
these times that the proximity OF the
U. 5. Coast Guard station al Plum
Island is Godsend' One such mel
dent took place some few years age.
The breakup occurred while the car
rier was transporting the mail TO this
side over the ice with horse and
sleigh. The ice became so thorough.
ly broken up that in very short time
the carrier found himself on an ice
cake barely large and heavy enough
to hold him and his equipment. The
Coast Guard crew, having noticed his
plight, came to their rescue. They
succeeded in getting line out to the
carrier and then towed the whole
cake over the solid ice and the carrier
was enabled to walk onto more solid
ice and thereby reached the mainland
ice on which to travel he usually re
sorts 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 s to 10 feet
deep and oftentimes impossible. In
such circumstances, he has TO return
and seek out new openings in the ice
fields. Sometimes his boat is caught
in drifting ice fields and carried out
into Lake Michigan and forced to stay
out over night. Finding suitable
landing places on either shore during
the winter. cutting off all access to
docks. Then the carrier must land
along the beaches wherever the surf
will permit, anchor his boat in deep
nayigable water and ferry the mail
into shore In 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. The
carrier attaches ropes to the gun
wales forward and hauls the boat
along the ice like 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 at
tempting to launch the boat from the
edge of the ice. Naturally, there Is a
A.. I'LL -. I
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 gun
vale of the boat pushes 1t along to-
ward open water, leaping back into
the boat when his footing has dis
appeared.
"The wonder of 1t all Is that there
are not frequent drownings but
know of no loss of life while carrying
mail across Deaths Door. Naturally,
with all these difficulties to overcome,
there are periods when the carrier Is
unable to cross, quite frequently for
five or six days at a time. During
these delays, mail is piling up at the
Ellison Bay post office making IT
quite a problem for the already over
worked carrier as to how TO trans
port such a large volume of mail with
the means at hand. These periods
Of non-mail delivery are trying to the
one thousand inhabitants on Wash
ington Island since the parcels post
system affords the only means in win
ter to procure supplies, medicine 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 not 2"
The carrier who supplies mail on
The Newport-Otter Rock route IN
Oregon, Immediately on the Pacific
coast, is up against many difficulties
and hardships and many times takes
his life in his hand in order that the
patrons on the route may receive their
etters and packages. The carrier Is
TO travel down the beach at
ow tide. IL for some reason the in
coming tide catches him before COM
pleting his trip he must either
abandon his team and the mails and
climb the rocks or be dashed to pieces
against them.
The most expensive star route in
the United States is from price to
Vernal, Utah. 1t is 121 miles long
and for the fiscal year ending June
30, 1923, the cost of maintaining II
was approximately $96,700. As high
as 20 or more tons day Of mail mat
parcel post-are handled
over this route.
The longest routes are from Two
Harbors TO Grand Portage, MINI,
and from Midland, Texas, TO Loving
ton, New Mexico. These routes are
each 143 miles in length.