The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1899-12-07
KLONDIKE DOG EXPRESS.
scAMPERs ALONG WITH THE SLED
AT FIVE MILES AN HOUR.

the mail between Lake Bennett, the
present terminus of the White Pass
Railroad. and Dawson. The service,
which is to be weekly both ways, will
be as picturesque and unique as was
the old Pony Express across the
plains. But instead of the brown
desert for pathway, this new route
will lie along the icy bosom of the
Yukon. The 'malimute" dog will
take the place of the cayuse. Captain
Richie, General Superintendent of
the company that is undertaking the
work, came out by the same steamer
that brought the writer up from Daw-
son the other day, stopping off at
every police station to arrange for the
feeding and sheltering of the men and
dogs until such time as the company
may be able to build stations of their
own, writes Cy Warman in the New
York Independent.
The stations of the Northwest
mounted police are thirty miles apart.
1t will take 100 dogs and forty men
twenty drivers and twenty helpers and
hostlers. Seventy tons of dog fodder
and 200 tons of supplies for the men will
be coached along the line before the
river closes. There will be no delay
mo stops-save for the changing of
teams. The dogs will be changed at
each station, but the men will make
two stations without stopping A man
is expected to cover his run one way,
sixty miles, inside of twenty-four
hours. Here he will have from two
TO two and half days rest and then
double back, making 100 miles in a
week. 1t is expected that this con-
slant use of the trail will keep it open
and in good shape. Each man and
team will travel the same section of
the trail constantly, and so become
familiar with y and be able to take
every advantage to avoid delay A
mill-run of the statements made by
the various prevaricators with whom
l discussed the matter shows that the
average depth of snow between White
Horse Rapids and Dawson, 450 miles,
is two feet. There is absolutely no
wind-no drifts-so that when once
the trail is beaten down it becomes
firm, smooth pathway, over which
good team Of ''Inside dogs" can scam
per with mail sled at five miles
an hour. A man went out over
the ice last winter on BIZ
cycle in eight days, breaking the
record. To be su:e the dogs drawing
the mails will be the swiftest and
hardest that money can secure. They
will be carefully handled and fed, for
each team and sled will represent a
cost to the company of something like
$500. A single team once sold for
50, 500 at Dawson. The principal dog
diet will be boiled rice and dried sal
mon.
In case of illness or disability of the
regular men there will always be a
man available from the mounted police
to take his place; so that it would
seem an easy matter to give the coun-
try locally known as "The inside" as
good service in winter as it has in
summer, when the company has three
steamers week each way. Last year,
when those who had undertaken the
work failed, the police took the mails
und CuIIlGu bAOm III ROOu
shape, saved the Dominion Govern.
ment some $50, 900, and all without
the faintost hope of reward, save the
meager salary allowed them. 1t would
be handsome thing for the Canadian
Parliament to vote few thousand for
the benefit of those patient, faithful,
silent guardians of the Klondike trail.
The telegraph, which as 1 write is
at Fort Selkirk, will be into Dawson
by the end of October, so that Mr.
Burdette, the mail superintendent. can
handle the mail by wire, just as a
train dispatcher handles the trains on
n railway. 1t will be possible to know
just where the mails are at any mo-
ment. The driver will register at each
police station, and from these records
the time of the men will be made up
When the river has become safely
and securely locked horses are to be
tried on the trail, but not many mer
in the Klondike believe in horses
They are harder to house and handle
and feed. They must eat two or three
times day and have a warm place tC
sleep. Not so with native dog. Give
him one square" day and coy
drift for downy couch and he il
happy. Besides horses are expensive
A good horse is worth from three tC
five hundred dollars in Dawson.
asked man for the hire of a horse
to ride up to Milrooneys Forks, six
teen miles, and he wanted $50.
explained that only wanted the ami
NAL for one day. He understood, ht
said, and that would be the rent
thirty dollars. In view of the fac
that the Klondike cayuse hustles hii
own hay in the hills, this struck m,
as rather high rent. At the risk Of
having the statement doubted, wan
to say here that saw horses in Daw
q son that were said to have wintereC
on the creeks, paving through two OF
three feet of snow for their fesd, ant
they were in excellent condition fo
beginning another winter on th
Klondike. Not far from this wood
pile there IS whole herd of horses
that were shipwrecked and abandoned
here year ago. They are now romp
ing over the heliotrope hills rejoicing
that they are not compelled to worl
in field here, where the summer SUI
shines twenty-five hours day. The,
are already half wild.
From my stateroom window see
scow loaded with horses drifting