The Camden weekly journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1853-1861, 1854-04-11
Dog Trains.

tudes, and is inaccessible in winter tor steam.
boats, or overland by teams. The inhabitants
keep up an occasional communication with
the world by means of dog trains, which con-
vcy the mails and light articles of traffic. A
correspondent of the Cleveland Herald, wri
ting from Eagle River, gives an interesting
account of this mode of travelling. After
stating the different routes to the settlements,
none Of which present beaten or even we'll
defined track, he goes on to say:
Such are the frozen spaces over which q
score of Indian half-breeds and their dogs car
ry and draw the letters and papers destined
for our amusement and our information. 4
man carries from so to Is pounds, and walks
30 to so miles. His two dogs 60 before him,
with sledge or shed with a fiat board bot
tom, and draw $50 to 300 pounds.
This load, however, is not all letters and
packages. All men must eat, and an Indian in
particular He must carry half axe or hatchet,
plenty OF blankets, and something tor his dogs
to eat, as we'll as himself What can be more
desolate than such journey9 Yet many per:
sons from here make the trip every winter on
business, in company with the mail
Sometimes they have the trail of previous
party, but the snow, which falls almost every
day, soon obliterates their footsteps Perhaps
there is line of bazed trees which they fol-
low, but more often they are guided through
the forest by the make of the ground" or by
the sun, if it should occasionally peep out
through the mists and snow of winter sky.
Thus they 60, from the first dawn of day to
the twilight of evening; over lakes and noun
tains, through swamps and thickets, that in
summer would be impossible, but now smooth
ed up level with snow.
The universal evergreen trees are bending to
es that frequently obstruct the way.
This dismal procession of Indians. white men
and dogs, 60 in single file, few feet apart, and
for hours they travel on, at the height Of their
speed, without word or a laugh.
| 1t is too much Of a task to clear away the
snow, start fire, heat the water, thaw the
bread and prepare forest meal, to stop for at
noon. But at evening, when the shades Of a
| hyperborean night begin to gather among the
branches of the trees, and the northern winds
howl more earnestly, the company look about
for shelter-pace in some ravine where there
is water, and some dry wood for fire, and
there deposite their load Of blankets and pro-
visions. They scrape away the snow with
their snow shoes, down to the ground, thus
making wall of frost around them three or
four feet high
Some cut wood for the night, others break
off the boughs Of the pine, balsam or cedar,
and lay them down for a bed. Another pro-
cures some birch bark that is dry and some
dry sticks, aAd striking fire by his flint and
steel, or his Matches has cheerful flame with
its grateful heat enlivening the place 1t is also
necessary to build lod &c or house of boughs
overhead to keep off the falling snow, under
which they all gather and cook their supper
with great glee If a camp of Indians has
been passed during the day, there will be seen
position around the fire, suspended upon the
sharp points of timber sticks set in the ground
and leaning towards the heat. There may be,
however. only some salt pork, or ham and
| flour, made edible by means Of shUrt-handled
| frying pan and some water.
1t would astonish city people to see the
quantity of such materials that disappear on
such an occasion. The meal, or rather the
feast, is really intended for the whole Of the
next twcuty-iour hours. When it is finished
the party begin to unpack their feet and their
| blankets.
The various articles that the feet are sandaled
| in for winter are so numerous and so peculiar,
that must defer the description until another
| time.
The blankets being well spread, the fire made
for the night, the dogs fed and the dishes washed,
the Crowd, animal and mortal, Indian and white,
doubles itself together in most friendly con-
tiguity, and goes to sleep. Long before day
light the inmates Of this snow.bound lodging
are in motion. The sounds that issue from it
are English, French and Indian, and all grades
of language composed of a mixture of them
all. The noccasins are taken down from their
drying places, the hasty morning repast, which
was cooked the night before, is swallowed, the
packs made up, the dogs harnessed, and all
made ready for start at the first light of day.
What piteous howlings these dogs set up as
they are attached to the train. The human
part of the cavalcade sling their packs, and all
betake themselves again to the dreary labors
of the day
It is thus that this communication will reach
you, but before many years we hope to have
IN open road from tie settlements, and beat
en- path over which there would be the best of
sleighing between four andtfve months in the
year.
No PLACE LIKE IIoME.-"Pick OUT
writes Mr.. Wallace, the Naturalist, who has
just spcut fouryears in collecting specimens
on the banks of the Amazon, "pick out the
lovelicst spots where the most gorgeous flow
ers Of the tropics expand their glowing petals,
and for every scene of this kind, we may find
another at home fequa beauty, and with an