Fishing through the Ice 381 



quently the shanties are mounted upon runners of 

 plank to facilitate moving from point to point. It is 

 comfortable and dark inside a shanty when once the 

 door is shut, for there is no window, the object being 

 to exclude all light save what strays upward through 

 the clear ice-floor. 



When a shanty is ready for business, it is stationed 

 on the ice above some known shoal or channel 

 favored of fish; a little snow is banked up around 

 the house and an opening of convenient size cut 

 through the ice inside. This hole is carefully cleared 

 of all fragments of ice, and when the shanty door is 

 closed, one can peer down into the haunts of fish. 



The grandest prize to fall to the spearman's skill 

 is, of course, a " 'lunge," as the mascalonge is 

 termed, and to attract his lordship within striking 

 distance, an artificial minnow is attached to a string 

 and caused to play about a short distance below the 

 surface of the exposed water. When a fish of goodly 

 size shows within safe reach, a swift thrust with the 

 three, four, or sometimes five tined spear secures or 

 misses the game, as the case may be. 



Jim and I sat side by side, gazing downward. 

 I manipulated the minnow, while he held the spear 

 ready for instant action. Below were soft, shadowy, 

 green depths, half-illumined by a weird, ghostly light 

 which seemed to come from nowhere and to reveal 

 nothing. But soon our eyes seemed to focus 

 properly, as it were, and the view broadened. We 

 could distinguish faint forms of water-weeds, and 

 once or twice a gilded perch sailed solemnly across 

 the silence below, like a seared leaf wind driven. 



It was very pretty and fascinating, and I swam 



