The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-03-28
RECORD TRIP A COLD ONE.

RECORD TRIP A COLD ONE. Mounted Patrol, Dawson to Fort
 Macpherson and Return, 49 Days,
 Forty-nine days from Dawson to Fort Macpherson and return-such is the record made by the Royal North west mounted patrol which is now back in Dawson, says the Seattle Post Intelligencer. The party was in charge of Constable Forrest, and made going and coming between the two points
 Last yelr the patrol took the long CT route, via Mayo, and was 96 days on the round trip The year before the same route was followed as this year. and 6 days were consumed in the round trip.
 The time going this year was 2S days; returning, 21 days. Forrest and all the men and dogs in the ex- redltion returned in first-class condi- ton. No mishaps occurred, and not a man or dog was sick or scratched a single day.
 The party laid up two days going and two days coming along the trail, and rested 13 days at Fort Macpher- son before starting back.
 The mail from Herschel island had been brought from Herschel to Mac pherson before the Mackenzie river closed in the fall, and was held at Macpherson awaiting the Forrest party Two hundred letters. weighing 13 pounds, were brought by Forrest. The letters were chiefly from the police and whllers an dtraders at Herschel, and traders and police at Macpreson, Mail from various Hudson bay posts in the Mackenzie valley was conee1- trated at Macpherson for this patrol. Some of the letters are addressed to Great Slave lake. They will be taken from Dawson to Vancouver E. c. thence east by rail, thence north to Edmonton, thence down the long string of headwaters of Mackenzie, this spring. They will not reach their destination until next summer. Other letters brought ircluded some for the home officers of the San Francisco whalers.
 According to Forrest, there was only one whaler at Herschel this winter No violent happenings or any other cd verse news comes from Herschal or Macpherson. The only living persons the mushers met after plunging into the wilderness beyond the pale of the Klondike camp were a band of Indians on the Blackstone river.
 The patrol followed a trackless waste moving continually in snow shoes, covering in the full trip perhaps some 1000 miles. The time the men made is something of a marvel. Forrest is the crack musher of the police, anE. even with this recognized he was not ex- pected back here for weeks.
 The party started with three dog teams with five dogs to a team, and 1900 pounds of feed, all but 400 of which was for the dogs. The dog feed was exhausted by the time Black stone river, beyond the Rockies, was reached on the trip out from Dawson. There dried caribou was bought from the Indians The food was fed to the animals perfectly dry, without cook ing and they kept well and worked hf roically day after day on it. The men fared almost wholly on becon and beans, dessicated potatoes, rice tea and a few other such simple things, including only % pounds of dried fruit They returned with voracious appeti- tes,, and strong and as wirey as wild cats.
 Louis Cardinal, noted northern long distance runner and musher; Tom Me- Donald and Richard Martin were with Forrest on the round trip,
 Considerable water was encountered on the Twelvemile river. In some places there were cutting gales. other wise the trip was not extraordinary. The men travelled during weather when the thermometer wts. 40 to 50 deg, below Tn fact more extereme cold weather of this kind than any other prevailed during the entire round trip.
 The route followed from Dawson was as follows; Down the Yukon river to the Twelvemile, up the Twelvemile rortheasterly toward and to seeley pass in the Rockies, through the pass and down the Blackstone river, over the divide to Hart river, down Hart to Little Hart, down Little Hart to a tributary, over divide to Little Wind, down Little Wind to Big Wind, down Big Wind to the Peel, down Peel to the portage, over the portage and down the remainder of the Peel to Macpher- son.
 The fine trip by Forrest and party will be more appreciated when eX- plained that nothing was supplied on the entire trip except ofe dog food ob- tained from the Indians at Blackstone, coming and going, and the outfit at the Macpherson end for the trop back and the further fact that trail had to be broken all the way for the dogs had their laden toboggans and every man walked the full distance with snow shoes.