The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1878-01-24
AN ARCTIC MAIL.
How the Mail II Carried in Winter to One
Sixth OF the Western Coutinent-The Life
OF the Sledue .DrIvers-Thousands Of
Miles ou Auow-Sb0es.


OF the sledge nds Of
Miles on snow-Shoes.
Down upon the ice of the Red river
of the North, below the walls of Fort
Garry, writes Winnipeg british Amer
ing Post, there began a few days since
dog-sledge journey which supplies
mail matter to at least one-sixth of the
Western continent There we're no
swinging coaches, neighing horses, or
huge pile of leathern mail bugs to be
seen only the every day spectacle of
few dogs, few turned-up boards, and
half dozen half breeds in their pictur-
esque winter dress none OF the usual
belongings of the civilized mail service.
The boat brigades of the summer carry
a mail in addition to their freight but
in the long winters, when the waters are
locked up in ice and the plains covered
with snow, leaving scarcely landmark
discernible by which the days course
may be steered, other appliances take the
place of plank bottoms and sturdy oars
men.
Every year about the 10th December,
when the. landscape is clothed in its
winter raiment of white, and the rivers
and lakes are covered with thick ice,
there starts from Fort Garry, bound
north, this accumulation of mail matter,
known as the Great Nothern Packet.
Through its agency communication is
had with every post in the territory.
The appliances for the carriage of this
important packet are snow-shoes and
sledges. The latter, generally four in
number, are drawn by dogs, of which
there are four to each sledge, and in
whose trappings considerable taste and
ornament are displayed. But though
gaudy in appearance and decorated with
clinking and shining bits of metal, rib
bons, etc., they are, nevertheless, neatly
fitting, simple in design, and perfectly
adapted to the purpose for which
they are intended. Little bells,
ringing clearly, attached to each harness
cheer the spirits of men and animals
through the long runs of the day. Their
drivers, one to each sledge, lightly clad
for running alongside their trains, are
shod with snow-shoes. Each alternate
sledge is loaded with white fish as pro-
visions for the dogs upon the journey
every animal receiving single fish at
the termination of the days travel-and
pemmican and tea for the drivers.
There is bound upon each of the re-
naming sledges pair of stoutly con-
structed boxes, measuring about three
feet in length by eighteen inches in
width and fourteen inches in depth.
These wooden mail bags, when properly
packed, contain an astonishing amount
of printed and written matter. These
receptacles being secured upon the
sledges, the party sets forth upon its
long journey, the dogs running at reg
ular trot from morning till night, and
the drivers accompanying them on foot,
at the rate of about forty miles per day.
The route taken is generally that follow
ed by the boat brgades in the summer,
shortened whenever practicable by cross
ing points of land jutting out into the
lakes, and striking out overland from
bend to bend of the rivers. But the ice
forms the general roadway, and the
whole length of Lake Winnipeg is ira
versed to Norway House at its northern
extremity. This post constitutes what
may be called q general distributing
office-the entire packet being over.
hauled and repacked, SO as to separate
matter going north and west from that
going eastward toward Hudson's Bay.
Before the institution of mails connect
ing points inthe United States with Fort
Garry, all excess in the amount of mail
matter transmitted through the winter
packets was so jealously guarded against
the carriage of newspapers, as creating
additional weight, and not of vital i'm.
portance to the service, was prohibited,
with the single exception of an annual
file of the Montreal Gazette, forwarded
to the headquarters of each department
for general perusal. The fifty.two
copies of that periodical circulated over
the vast country from post to post until,
worn out by much service and obscured
by much patching and pasting in order
to hold them together until yet another
reader might obtain perusal, they
finished their course in a lonely station,
in latitude sixty-seven degrees thirty
minutes north, where, am credibly
Informed, certain ancient fragments CT
them are yet to be seen. At this date,
however, newspapers, once SO rare and
highly priced, form the bulk OF the con.
tents of the company's inward bound
packet. In fact, many of the officers
are regular subscribers to daily journals
q
year after date of publication; SO that,
with the exception of the events of the
year just passed, the dwellers under the
shadow of the pole are as well informed
as we as to the doings of the great world
The contents of the outward and in
ward-bound mails of this sparsely settled
territory present striking differences
in appearance, which add to the many
peculiarities of peculiar service. The
difference lies in the presence in the in
ward mail of newspapers, periodicals
and other printed matter, bearing a gen.
elaily soiled, postmarked and frayed as
pect, contrasting strongly with the pure
white envelopes which constitute the
sole contents of the outwardbound mail.
Occasionally, too, there appears {
strangely gotten up parcel of the inne,
bark of the birch tree doing duty as
writing paper. Again, particularly
white and thin parchment will bear news
from some isolated friend, who wishes
to make his letters memorable in more
ways than one. These latter styles Of
correspondence are, however, but some
of the many ways of passing the time in
the interior country, where a great part
of the year is passed in idleness.
The runners in charge of the mai
packets are generally half-breeds, whose
capacity for rapid travelling has beer
tested. They are not unimportant men
| either in their own ewes or in the ewes