From the Vineyard Gazette edition of Feb. 3, 1939:

The idea of electric power and lights for Chilmark is revived by the sight of tall poles being set on Abel’s Hill, with the telephone cables carried on cross-arms about halfway up the poles. While no statements have been given out by any officials, it is admitted that power for Chilmark is a possibility and that these replacement poles are being provided with a view of future requirements. The prediction that the lines will be extended to Chilmark within a year, has been made, but no official confirmation can be obtained, the only answer being that, if and when a satisfactory guarantee of revenue is given, the system will be extended.

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If anyone hones for a little rod and reel fishing of the summer variety, there is no need to go South for the sport. Although mittens and earmuffs may be required on Island beaches at times, the stripers are here, and willing to take the lure. A school of these big game fish was breaking and cavorting at Anthier’s Bridge within a few days, and others have been seen around the South Beach of late.

That this is not unusual is declared by some of the older inhabitants, and it may be so, but it is not a common thing for the fish to be seen at this time of year. Coupled with the activities of the mackerel seiners, who have drawn small fortunes from the nearby ocean, the appearance of the striped bass here in January not only indicates an early spring but that the winter has been nowhere near as severe as some people appear to think.

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The southerly wind of the weekend came at exactly the right time to ruin the ice harvest, softening the ice which lay nearly seven inches thick on Old House Pond, in the town of West Tisbury, where H. L. Peakes of Vineyard Haven was already cutting ice for his weekly supply. Ice was five to six inches thick in Sheriff’s Meadow Pond, Edgartown, when the thaw began.

But if the icemen failed to secure their crop, the skaters enjoyed sport which has not been equalled in many winters. For days last week, and evenings too, the skating ponds were thronged. It was estimated that on Friday night at least two hundred people were on Uncle Seth’s Pond at Lambert’s Cove, and even with the ice softening slightly, half that number were there on the following night. During Saturday, a record crowd turned out, possibly three hundred people visiting the pond during the day. The sport continued on numerous ponds until Sunday’s rain brought it to a halt.

No iceboats were seen on Tashmoo Lake, which is usually frequented by iceboaters. The lake was too salt to freeze hard, and the first rise in temperature practically destroyed what ice there was. Chilmark Pond, also favored by iceboaters during hard winters, is unusually high and still rising. From all the appearances, it seemed as if the rising waters prevented the pond from freezing smoothly, and made it unsafe.

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Travelers on the Lambert’s Cove Road on Sunday reported strange things in and about the cranberry bog of Eben D. Bodfish, near Makonikey. The bog, deeply flowed, was frozen over, with exception of a couple of small air holes, and it was about the largest of these that interest centered. There were scratches and marks on the ice around this hole, and fragments broken off, as if something had been dragged in and out of it.

While no one ventured too close to the place, due to the treacherous nature of the ice, they did approach near enough to see that the marks about the place were animal tracks of some kind. Too large for muskrat or otter tracks, the cry of “seal” was raised at once, although what a seal would be doing in a cranberry bog, or how it reached the place, remain unexplained.

Nevertheless there was an unconfirmed report of a small, sleek, dog-like head rising from the air hole to direct big, questioning eyes at the observers who lined the roadway nearby, which certainly sounded like “seal.”

It was recalled that a seal had been reported in the bog several years ago, and that it was supposed to have come from the beach, in search of wild grapes, it was explained at the time. According to Arctic veterans, seals are especially fond of wild grapes, and although the fruit has virtually disappeared before the seals arrive in this locality, occasional dried vines, which the seals scent and endeavor to obtain.

The tradition regarding seals and grapes goes back to Indian days, when the men were supposed to have employed wild grapes in the making of pemmican, with the special design of using the pemmican for bait when they needed fresh meat in winter. An Arctic whaleman once said that he saved an entire Eskimo village from starvation by baiting seals with a few jars of grape jelly that his wife had given him to take to sea.

In any event, if anyone has a jar of grape jelly which he can spare, an experiment can easily be made by leaving it on the shore of the cranberry bog.

Compiled by Hilary Wall
library@mvgazette.com