Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1903-07-25
MAIL CARRYING IN ALASKA.
One Lonely Route 1000 Miles Long
Over tho Ice.

OVer the Ice.
another mail carriers been frozen
to death, boys"
YES? That's bad luck! Why, 1t
was only three weeks ago that Ben
Downing lost his toes"
This is the kind Of talk the traveller
hears in the trappers' huts and rest
houses on the frozen Yukon river and
the Behring coast up to Nome. Along
1000 miles of this ice-bound region
the United States government has es-
tablished the loneliest and most dan
eerous mail route in the world.
The mail carriers travel on foot over
sixteen hundred miles Of the route,
and one stretch Of nearly eight hum
dred miles through a desolate unin-
habited country has to be covered by
a single postman. The Yukon mail
carrier must travel with his dog sledge
along a river piled up with blocks OF
ice like the boulders on hillside.
The river is several miles wide IN
places, and sometimes the surface Is so
broken by. hillocks Of Ice and snow
drifts that it's winding course cannot
be distinguished from the land. The
carrier then has to don his snow shoes
and break a new trail for the dogs over
the trackless waste.
Theodore Blum started to do this
one morning. It was the Yukon fats
lust inside the Arctic circle, where the
river is nearly fifteen miles wide.
He carried a long fir pole with him,
his dog team following him, ana "nen
he felt the Ice giving way he threw
down the pole and rested his weight on
it. But even though his weight was
thus distributed it did not always save
him from q ducking. He broke
through no fewer than six times IN
his endeavor to cross the river, and
narrowly escaped being frozen before
he could reach one Of the shelters.
Ben Downing, the most famous OF
the mail carriers, narrowly escaped
death at the close Of last season. 1t
was spring time, and tie sun an hour
before and after noon softened the
snow and made travel difficult, so
most of his travelling was done in the
night.
He left the station at 1 o'clock IN
the morning, putting. laced moccasins
on the feet Of his dogs to prevent the
sharp Ice crystals from cutting them'
He had made twenty miles and was
going along at a clipping pace his
hands on the bars Of the sled, when he
heard the Ice crack under his dogs.
He halted them with a word and
planted his feet rigidly to break the
momentum of the sled. This sudden
throwing Of his weight In one place
broke the ice, and down he went.
The sagacity which comes to the
dogs from daily going through such ex-
periences enabled them to drag him on
to the solid ice, and away they went
again, faster than before, because Ben
had his feet wet and knew they were
freezing. A few miles more and he
knew they had already frozen. They
began to bleed, and for ten miles the
blood spurted out Of the lace holes OF
his moccasins with every step, and left
q red trail on the frozen snow.
At length he reached one OF his lone
ly stations. The first thing he did was
to strip off his wet clothes; then he
wrapped a blanket around his naked
body and in a temperature Of 62 de-
grees below zero hunted up wood and
made q fire.
The following night he travelled
nearly fifty miles until he reached
Dawson City. He handed over his
mail, went limping about his business