The introduction of the automobile into the business of transporting passengers and freight across the 30 miles lying between the upper and lower ends of Lake Labarge, in the spring, after the river both above and below the lake has opened and the ice on the lake daily becomes more dangerous to travel over, has developed a situation that one must be personally acquainted with to believe possible. Who is there, except one familiar with this northern land, where the winter freeze-up of the streams is preceded by an accumulation of anchor ice on their beds and where the lower altitudes are several degrees colder than the high, would believe it possible for the driver of an auto, with a heavily laden sled trailing behind, to drive his machine in safety over ice so rotten and treacherous that it would not for a moment hold up an ordinary man traveling on foot? Yet such is the fact.
This method of travel was instituted during the season just closed by Cam Smith, who has been engaged in the transportation business over Lake Labarge for many years. When the ice became so rotten it was dangerous to travel over he rigged up an outfit consisting of the bare running gear of a light Ford. The front wheels he locked
and firmly attached to light wooden runners similar to a ski, the hind wheels were wrapped with safety chains, to prevent slipping: close behind, a light sled trailed along with the goods to be transported, as it may well be believed, at this stage of proceedings there are no passengers willing to risk their lives in making the perilous trip.
Going at the rate of 45 to 50 miles an hour the auto travels over the ice so swiftly that it fails to break through; or, rather, the front wheels on the runners do. Sometimes the rear wheels drop through, but the impact of the trail sled drives the machine forward ere disaster overtakes. And so, the apparently impossible is made possible.
Should anything happen to the machine that would cause it to stop, or
should the chauffer lose his nerve at a critical moment, there is small reason to doubt that the intrepid freighter would go to his death and his auto, sled and load sink to the bottom of the lake, for it would be by a miracle only that any of the outfit could be saved.
