The Icelandic connection - 01.09.2010, Page 10

60
ICELANDIC CONNECTION
Vol. 63 #Z
the east. Often the mail could take up to
several weeks to get to its destination.
Even the happy times of Christmas and
New Years would only live in memory.
But now, here they were, with sever-
al of their neighbors and friends, ready
for the winter’s work.
One evening shortly after they
arrived on the island one of the men had
gone to the lighthouse. He came running
back to the camp and said: “There is a
light on the horizon and it looks like a
boat is coming.” Many of the young men
sat down to write letters to their dear ones
in hopes of getting them onto the boat if it
should come to the island. Then they all
went down to the shore by the lighthouse
to await the landing of the boat.
The unbelieveable disappointment
was evident as they milled about on the
beach, trying to get a glimpse of the light
out on the lake. Nothing . . . nothing out
there. Only the reflection of the moon on
the waves was visible to them. What had
caused the light to shine in the night?
Perhaps it was a “will o’ the wisp” that
gave off an eerie light which was caused
by phosphorescence of dead fish in the
water. Or what? It was a sad group that
slowly walked back to the camp. The
thought of their terrible isolation was very
prominent in their minds. Very few words
were spoken as each one dealt with his
own disappointment. Silently and without
any more introspection they went to their
beds. Tomorrow would be another day of
hard work for them as they continued to
prepare for the winter of fishing on the
ice.
Soon, ice began forming at the shore
of the island, but waves and the warmth
of the November sun always melted it,
except in shaded parts of the shoreline. It
seemed to them that the wind never died
down long enough for the ice to take
hold. This island was well known as one
of the windiest places on the lake. So it
was that the ice did not freeze well
enough until after the middle of
December that year and its safety was still
questionable right up until Christmas.
As soon as it was possible, the men
began setting their nets under the ice in
fairly close proximity to the island. As the
ice thickened, they moved out further.
This was hard work as they chipped their
way down through the ice, making holes
with a narrow chisel known as a needle
bar. Then they drew an instrument they
called a jigger under the ice from hole to
hole. This board was unique as it clawed
its way under the ice away from the man
that pulled at the line in short jerks. It had
a separate line attatched to it which it
dragged to where the other man chopped
a hole when he thought it had gone a net
length. He could easily hear it clawing
under the ice so he knew where it was all
the time. Sometimes it was more difficult
to hear it in high winds or if the ice
became very thick, as it often did later in
the winter. This little gadget saved an
awful lot of work for those men setting
nets under the ice . The line that the jigger
pulled between the holes was used to pull
the nets under the ice so they lay between
the two holes.
Just before Christmas, somewhere in
the american west, probably in the
Colorado area, a storm of great magni-
tude was forming. It then moved in a pat-
tern now familiar to the weathermen of
today, northeast to the eastern shore of
Lake Winnipeg and then about halfway
north and back west across the lake in the
familiar hook visible on today’s weath-
ermaps. These storms generally dumped
large amounts of snow before moving
into northwestern Ontario. They were
usually followed by intense north-wester-
ly winds that blew mercilessly across this
part of the lake.
So, this was what the men on the
island were faced with. A heavy snow-
storm blanketed the island for several
days, making it virtually impossible for