“CAT-SKINNING”

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 February 1937, Page 10

“CAT-SKINNING”

MUSKEG MIRACLE WORKERS. In the American Northland the colourful dog teams used for freight hauling have largely given way to heavy transport planes, which, in turn, are being replaced by caterpillar tractors, or “cats” as they are known. The train of sleighs they draw is called a “swing,” its driver a “skinner.” The saga of “cat-skinning” has created a new vocabulary. The first “cat” appeared four yedrs ago, when a prospector named Jowsey struck gold in. the Hudson Bay sector. He was 132 miles from a railway, which deposited 1100 tons of machinery and mining equipment at the nearest point. There was neither road nor trail. Under the Northern lights, the “skinners” climbed into their cabs, and the first heavy “swings” were on their way. Each carried 30 to 10 tons. They trundled on, smashingdown brush, rattling over rocks, crawling circumspectly along the ice of many lakes. Where the ice was thin, the trail was “slushed." This consisted of mixing snow and water, and spreading the mixture on the thin .ice. As soon as it was spread it froze, and in some places the ice was thickened as much as sft.

“Bunting” poles, 1 great pieces of pine, Sin thick, were fastened between the sleighs, to prevent them, runningup on each other when the “swings” struck pilch holes in the' trail. In the biting cold, these poles snapped like matches, but the crew carried on. Despite a hundred setbacks, the first large “cat haul” was pronounced a success. The entire tonnage was delivered over trackless wilderness in two months. The new industry was fraught with many dangers. A “cat” went through the ice of a lake and, although the “skinner” escaped, the machine vanished in 8 ft of water, continuingdown through 28ft of muskeg (sticky mud). The insurance company sent out a diver, who went down through a large hole cut in the ice. He fought his way through the black ooze till he reached the “cat,” and fixed a hook to the drawbar. Eventually, it was salved. Another still lies under 80ft of muskeg. Norway House, in Northern Manitoba, received 1400 tons of mining machinery, consigned to Island Lake, 175 miles distant. It was being transported by a group of "cats” when the ice gave way under one. with a load of 45 tons. The cargo was mine hoists, and could not be replaced. The diver found the water too cold, but Northern ingenuity came to his aid. The air pump was placed beside a red-hot stove in the caboose and boiling water was poured on the valve of his helmet as he descended. The machinery was salvaged.

Tough men, these “skinners,” but the toughest of all is a foreman operating out of The Pas. Northern Manitoba. A heavy machine went through the ice. Before it could reach the colder depths, he plunged in, without waiting for a diving suit to be heated. He stayed under for two minutes, during which he was able to make a line fast. The cal was salved, after rlibbcrs thawed him. To-day. the "cat” trains roar over Northern trails, behind a huge tank sleigh, which ices the road for them. Forty-ton “swings” have grown to 300 tons. The largest hauls 36 logging sleighs, with a total pay-load weight of 1400 tons.

Whole settlements are transported on “cats.” They take social life in with them. too. for at the gold mine camp at God's Lake you will find women in fashionable gowns, gracing functions in a frontier community, which has electric light in every home, and a central steam-heating plant serv-

ing the whole settlement. “Cats” are playing their part in unrolling the map of Canada into the frozen Arctic.