Cape Breton's Magazine

cut was made the gauge went right into the first cut. In four or five turns you'd cut to the right depth. The ice plow had teeth, each a little bit longer than the one behind. You didn't plow through. The ice would probably be 24 inches deep. You left ice on the bottom so the horses and the men could work on the surface. If the ice wasn't that thick perhaps you'd plow only 6 inches. And you wouldn't cut too much ahead because water in the cuts would freeze again. To prevent that, after they made the cut they'd caulk it with shavings of ice • ''sed a caulking iron • and that kept water from getting in. They had handsaws with curved handles for cutting through the rest of the way. Then they'd break off the cakes as they needed them. (The tool for this was called an ice buster, a big crowbar with a flat section about 18 inches long, 1/2 inch thick, beveled at the end to a sharp edge.) You'd have to bust out the first block. That gave you the surface. Then you'd break out each block • it would break square in frosy weather • and the block would be floated around with poles to a wooden chute sloping up out of the water. The horses would pull it up with a rope sling. Earle Embree: Last? Well, I guess it would last. They put marsh hay or old hay over the top of it. And all through the summer we used to go down and get our ice for our iceboxes at home. They'd dig that ice out in blocks, with busters, and put it in a chute that run, yes, 2000 feet from where the ice house was. You could walk down the main street and see the ice going do m the chute and into the freezer down at the wharf, where it was ground up and put in the holds of the trawlers and the fishing schooners that were going to the Grand Banks freshfishing. When they caught their fish they packed it in the hold with this crushed ice. Now for instance in the trawler there were steel posts on two sides from the deck down to the bottom of the hold. The posts were built with four slots on each side. And they had boards four to four and a half feet long they slid down into the slots to make bins. And they put the fish in there and iced them as they put them in. They'd have cod all in one and haddock in another, flounder in another and they'd have halibut in another. And that ice would last, because the hold was closed in and they'd have perhaps 50-60 ton of Fran k's Drive-in FCR FAST COURTEOUS SERVICaS PH. 295-2878, BADDECK,C.B. MERCURY LINCOLN MACAULAY'S GARAGE BADDECK, N.S. We Specialize in Organically Grown Local Produce Campbell's Market Baddeck C & G MacLEOD LIMITED CLAN WALL PLAQUES CLAN BADGE PINS SCOTTISH BOOKS GAELIC BOOKS CLAN DECALS SCOTTISH RECORDS CLAN DOOR NAMEPLATES TARTAN SKIRT LENGTHS CLAN DOOR KNOCKERS CLAN BADGE POCKET CRESTS TARTAN SOUVENIRS OF ALL TYPES K >i':i r ''''' I 361 Charlone Street - P. O. Box 658 1*0 ?? u. Mailorders! sydney, nova scotia f A Specialty CANADA Cape Breton's Magazine/lO noT SrUA JOi2.Su I.