18 OVER ON THE ISLAND
“ It would be pretty hard on the commercial travellers. ”
“ It certainly was. ”
“Any casualties?”
“Not very many. Lem Dawson swung out of the straps, went under, and was never seen again. It was slow going when there were lullies, though. "
“Lullies?”
“ Snow packed up on the water, perhaps two or three feet deep. No boat could go through. It would stick to the sides and bottom. We couldn’t do anything unless the tide changed or it froze.”
“ Did you have any rules or regulations?”
“Yes—liquor was forbidden. The passage was too dangerous for drunks. ”
He chuckled again.
”One man put it over me! When we stopped for food and rest halfway across, he got out his valise and took it behind an ice clump. Another man joined him. They had a great time. \Vell, what could I do? I soon discovered that they had had a few drinks, but I could not put them off in the middle of the Strait . . .”
” How many boats were there? ”
“About six each way. Sometimes when they’d meet there would be over seventy people out there. ”
” Did they always get over?”
”Not always . . . The greatest ice—boat dis- aster was in the winter of 1885. A terrible storm came up. The boats could not move either way and the passengers were forced to spend the night out on the Strait. They turned the boats gunwale to gunwale and made a fire first with newspapers, then with oars.