DOWN THE AU SABLE. — BOATS. — POLERS. 281 



ling fishing in this countiy as, perhaps, the finest grayling 

 stream in Michigan. At this point it is not more than 

 twenty feet wide and has an average depth of about one 

 foot, with holes and shallows interspersed, and with crooks, 

 snags and rapids that necessitate a peculiar boat and 

 method of propulsion. 



We had two boats, flat-bottomed, with sides jiearly per- 

 pendicular, pointed at each end, and having a "fish- well" 

 or water-tight compartment, about one-third the length of 

 the l)c;it back from the bow. The water-tightness was 

 relieved, and the box made available for keeping fish alive 

 in it, by pulling half a dozen plugs from auger holes in the 

 enclosed bottom of the boat. The cover of the box made 

 a comfortable seat for the fisherman sitting face bow-wards, 

 while a round, old-fashioned "cat-hole" in the seat, on 

 either side, invited him to plump in his fish as fast as taken, 

 — they being supplied with fresh water from the river, 

 through the auger holes, in a degree of abundance corres- 

 ponding with the avoirdupois of the man above their 

 prison. Fat anglers are the grayling's favorites ; — fatness 

 means water, and water means life. 



The boatman, or '"poler," as he is locally known, sits or 

 stands — as the ease or dilficulty ,of his work i)ermits or 

 requires — in the stern of the boat, in a contracted space 

 tliat suggests an easy loss of equilibrium and a conse(iuent 

 ilucking. Ai-med with a slender but tough-fil)red pole, 

 which is about ten feet long and pointed at both ends with 

 iron, he forces the boat rapidly along the shallow s'trcam, 

 aroinid the sharp curves, among the snags and tlirougli \hv 



