Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-01-09
IN FAR-0FF ALASKA
The Most Northerly Mail
Service in the World.
A PERILOUS BUSINESS
LETTER CARRIERS TRAVEL LONG
DISTANCES OVER THE SNOW.
On Sleds Drawn by Eskimo Dogs
Many Narrow Escapes
From Death.
A PERILOUS BUSINESS

No one Who has not visited Alaska can
conceive of the immensely of that great
| territory of the United States, which ex-
| tends far into the arctic ocean, stretches
| it's arm nearly to Siberia the north and
whose islands on the south extend for hum
dreds of miles into the Pacific beyond the
| longitude of Hawaii, which is a weeks voy
age by steam from San Francisco. Alaska
is six times as large as New England, or as
large as all Of the United States east of the
Mississippi river; its coast line measures
26,G00 miles; 1t has the second largest river
in the world in the mighty Yukon, which is
navigable for $500 miles is twenty miles
| wide 700 miles from its mouth and dis
charges one-third more water than the
Mississippi.
This immense country is IN the infancy of
! its development, and the United States gov
facilities of commerce that are enjoyed by
the inhabitants of the states. Not until
few weeks ago did Sitka, the capital of the
territory, have the benefit of a telegraph
line, all of its communications with the
outside world having to reach it by mail
from Seattle, 1,O03 miles to the south And
yet Sitka Is scarcely in Alaska so near
proportionately, is it to the border of the
United States Since the development of
gold discoveries on the upper Yukon the
government has been hard at work hewing
its way into the forests and over the giant
mountains, and wherever the pioneers have
gone there has followed them a thread of
wire, and the telegraph now clicks it's mes
sageS where for ages no voice but that of
the native and the wild beast echoed
through the wilderness
First and foremost of the pioneers or tbis
primeval land were the carriers of the
United States mail. Civilization demands
communication between it's centers and its
uttermost outlying points, and the mail is
the first Of the signs that mark the diner
ence between the savage and enlightened
man. Wherever Is found community of
americans there will be found also the
pouches and sacks of the u M The
miners seeking their golden fortunes in the
frozen streams and mountains of ALASKA
demanded of their government that thew
De furnished with the means of communi-
eating with those whom they had LEFT M
nome, and to demand was to obtain N No
sooner mad settlement sprung up like a
village of mushrooms, along pass or in
the depths Of the mountains, where the
hardy toilers made the rocks rims, with tbeJr
PICKS than the arm of the posi- Office was
stretched toward them and the letters from,
nome began to arrive. 1t was a task that
gained 1or energy, pluck and money and
Nohcle Saln commanded all three in plenty
All-American Route.
Until recently the route to the mining
country was partly through British terri,
tory. but there is now an aIl-American
route from Seattle to Skagway. 1OOo miles
by steamer, thence to gle and from there
down the Yukon to ST. Michael In the
summer the trip can be made from Seattle
TO Nome by sea in ten days; in winter the
overland route has to be taken owing to
the freezing of the sea, and requires sixty
days Another route. which is in general
operation is from Seattle to SkaryVav 10
White Horse. B. c., 112 miles from SkaR
way, thence to Dawson, horses being used
and the distance being 475 miles; thence to
Eagle, 1O2 miles with dogs. thence down
the river to st. Michael TO Nome to Kotze-
bue, all this by means of the interesting ma
tive dogs.
From Kotzebue TO Cape Barrow there has
just been established the most interesting
of all the mail routes of the territory The
distance is $50 miles and the mails are car
ried by reindeer. Two round trips will be
made this winter, the first one having been
begun in December. Prior to this there
was no mail during the winter. For this
service the government pays the contractor
$3.50 for each round trip and he does the
rest. Cape Barrow is on the Arctic ocean.
In latitude II degrees north, and longitude
157 degrees west. This is within a few
degrees of the most northerly point ever
reached by man. and settled on the icy
barrens are a number of hardy explorers
and miners as well the keepers of the
United States reindeer station there. These
men will now hear from home twice during
each winter, and will not feel quite so much
like outcaStS as they have when for eight
months they were pent up within the con-
fines of snow and ice in the solitude of an
arctic night.
By Dog Sleds.
The dogs that carry the mails of the
United States into the depths of Alaska are
of the hardest variety of Eskimo They
subsist almost entirely on frozen fish, are
always hungry and can draw a heavy sled
twenty-five miles day with apparently less
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