Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 December 1881 — Canadian Ice-Fishing. [ARTICLE]

Canadian Ice-Fishing.

Toronto Globs. * - Winter fishing deserves a brief notice. As it is carried on only through the ice, it is almostconfined to the frozen inlets of tbe south shore of the Georgian Bay, to Burlington Bay, and the Bay of Quinte. In Winter a passenger by the Great Western Railway will notice oo the ice near Oakville and on Burlington Bay a large number of small wooden houses, about four feet square, j ist Ligo enough to allow of a man stauding np right. These houses have no widows. Under each or these square boxes is a hole toro”gh the ice. This hole tbe fishrman sits and,watches with all the eagerness displayed by a polar bear watchiug a seal-hole. It is a cold operation, but sometimes a pot suspended above the ice and containinga fire affords a little warmth. The fishing through this hole is done either with hook or forklike spears. On tbe Georgian Bay inlets Indians and half-breeds are the fisherman—not whte men. Tbe mode is primitive. The little houses are not us°d, but the Indian, crouching down on the ic-*, Covers bis head and the hole with a bian ket, so as to exclude as much as possible any light except that which comes through the ice. The amusement is a grim one, and brings but little return to "‘Poor Lo.” Sometimes, however, a email wigwam is pitched over tbe bole and a little more comfort is enjoyed by the lonely fisherman.