The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1874-12-30
A Transcontincntai Drive with n
Dog Team.
ny Prof. J. D. BUTLER, IL. y.

lne lar Northwest has always hlu
charm for me. Some seventeen years ago
| fancied had crossed its threshold when
first landed in Minneapolis. But the
morning after counted ninety Indian
carts in caravan detling by. When /
asked where they came from, the answer
was, "From the Selklrk settlement" -
which was, as half-breeds travel, forty-fve
days further from the ragged edge of civil
ization.
Two years ago, after visiting Lake SUI
perior, Duluth, and enough of the north
ern Pacific road to see the danger that too
many Cooks would spoil the broth. spent
ten days In forcing passage down the
Red River to that Selkirk settlement, other
wise called Fort Carry on the AssinnbOin,
the capital of Manitoba. When there |
seemed to have voyaged with Jules Verne
to another planet. The original Alexander
Sclkirk was scarcely more insulated. |
was in community so cut off from all the
world as TIL recently to have no imports
save by one ship year via lIudsou's Bay,
and one annual mail brought in bark
canoe in thirty-eight days from Montreal.
AT q solitary house, dignified by the name
of Hudson Bay post, fell in with II
man TO whose travels my own were snails
or an oysters. had been in Damascus,
but he had traversed "Farthcst Ind aud
Burmah. Nor was the region round us
new to him. Two years before. having
piloted the British Red River expedition 10
its goa, he had gone west eleven hundred
miles to the Rocky mountains, and pCnc-
trated the bowels of the land as far in
another direction. More than half the
way he had driven, in the midst of winter.
| in traineau drawn bv hauling dogs. This
cosmopolite, Capt. w. F. Butler, of the
British army. was just starting on a new
and more arduous tramp, which he unfold
| cd to me during our week of companion
| ship. He was bound to the Yukon, Il river
which had never beard of, hut which he
styled the Mississippi of the North, rising
or cmptying beneath the Aurora BGrcalis,
| or among lIyperbOreans. The transc0ul-
mental passage of five thousand niles he
had resolved to make alone, So far as liz
should fail to secure Indian guides, aud
drawn by dogs, except when forced to run
for escape from freezing. One Of hi.
hopes was to ascertain whether an overland
telegraph wire could be laid beneath The
ice of Arctic rivers, and so ''iurn the Pa
cific, which is too wide Il water to SIRE CT
wires across.
While descending the Red liver with me
Capt. Butler procured from Hudson Bay
employees, four hauling dogs, one of which
"Cerf.yola" (Flying Stag had been will
him on his former trip, aud recognized hi
old master as soulfully as Argus die
Ulysses. John Bull dog pluck is proven
bal, and the captain. in his best years, tall
muscular, but rather spare than stout, ha'
physique able to trample impOssblliie
under foot. Disappointed Of an opporlu
nifty to 90 in search of Livingston, h
carved out career for himself.
A month after my return from Mauto
ba, met in Chicago II member of th
British parliament who had escorted tn
advcnturer ten days up the Assinnboin
but no further tidings of him reached m
till his name appeared as one of the mos
efficient officers in the Ashantee invasion
Meantime, however. he had written a boul
("The Wild North Land" Porter & Coates
Philadelphia, PIP. 35S, with map an
platcs,) describing as knowingly as Othell
to Cesdemonia, such accidents by Hood an
field. and such 'scare, in thrilling regions
of the thick ribbed ice, as very few me
would have survived TO relate. None @
his dogs died. except "Cerf-vola.'
His dog-trot of eight months eXtendc
) through thirty degrees of longitude, bu
less than ten of latitude. For. on reachn
Lake Athabasea. after five months of force
marches, the pilgrim, turning westward
toilcd up Peace river, a thousand miles q
, the ice, and then, proceeding southwark Il
much further, arrived at the capital q
British Columbia. He was frost-bitcr
starved, famed. his barometer broker
watch aud pistol lost, his canoe capsized i
6 deep and ICY water. In his utmost nee
l he was left alone by everybody but his dol
, so that ne came to have faith in Darwin
| uT0pccpot uf Man ~ that La, had Dt
scended below dogs. The cold was as IA
below the freezing point as equatorial hes
ever rises above it, Nothing could say
him from freezing when at n halt but lynn
' down between his dogs and when ON h
route, but running behind or before then
| One day he ran titty-sX miles. The int
: space between one post and another W;
: once twelve days. During winter Ii
q morning start was from two To lot
y o'clock when spring opened, his progto'
4 was altogether by night.
@ Regarding the Geographic project Ii
\ book is silent. AS 10 Il railroad throus
; the New Dominion, Capt. Butler argue
4 that the most feasible route is about te
n degrees north of our Northern Pacili
V But who will ever need road there Or
r mail year is the present supply. and
d suflices for the demand Capt. Butler ust
@ common words with uncommon power, {
q might be expected, from his unique exp
riencc. His humor and idioms are inimll
BILE by any one who has not been also q
original explorer The taste OF his qualii
J. surpasses tourists on beaten tracks, rs vii
u geese have finer flavor than tame. III
5 dog, the buffalo. the fur trade arc no whe
n so wildly portrayed. Tic blind lndia
+ five days lost, the honesty of ''hloosc-'ha
, walks" and the exchanges of boats vii
L Pete Toy, few can read with dry eye
:, While full justice is done the red nun, II
d shown that even tribes iarthcst from 4
u whites are rapidly dwlndlng.