The Alaska sourdough., 1911-10-10

Post this morning, where, surrounded by their wolf dogs, they told in matter of-fact way, the plan of their undertak- ing. and some of the difficulties that have so far beset them.
 Tanned, muscular, evidently in per feet health, both the man and the woman appear as fit for round-the- world trip behind dog team as two people could be- The thing to them is business proposition and they discuss it as such. Minor obstacles are given little heed. When in the vicinity of Shawnee, in Platte Canon, nearly 70 miles from Denver, one of the axles of the half sledge, half wagon conveyance which they use, broke, Mrs. Mason left her husband in charge of camp and dogs, came ahead to Denver, got a new axle and sent it out. She was joined by Mason this morning.
 This blue-eyed young woman is na- tive of Sweden, but has lived in var ious parts of America during consid- erable portion of her life.
 s'It was on wager that we under took the trip,' said she. "Harry, my husband, whom I met and married in Nome, five years ago, is native Colo radoan. He was born at Eagle and reared there. But he's been up in the northwest for years and years-he was at Nome before there was any Nome and when he decided several years ago that he was coming back home for a visit, he thought it would be a good scheme to make the trip by sled with the dog team, Eskimo fashion. Then the idea developed of going around the world that way, the wager was made and we started, depending on our.own wits and muscles to make our living en route
 According to the wager, purse of $12,S00 put up by the Alaska Sweep stake Race company and the North Star Trading company, will go to us if we get back to Nome by May l, 1915, with the sled intact and at least two of the six dogs we started with. Well, we started out and sledded it until we reached a point 62 miles northeast of Ashcroft, B. C. There the snow gave out and we put wheelbarrow wheels on our rig and they answered our pur- pose first rate.
 "We got a free concession for the Alaska Yukon exposition at Seattle and we hung up there until October IS, 1909. From Seattle we went down in- to Montana and it was while we were crossing Taft Summit, near St. Regis, that our first bad luck overlook us. The dogs got after a rabbit and became de- moralized They ran away and my hus- band was hurled down a steep slant of some 600 feet, breaking some of his ribs and bruising him up all over. It was many months before he was able to travel again and we stopped at Mis- soula, Mont, until Sept. IS, 1910, after which we visited Great Falls, Helena, and, other towns, giving exhibitions of driving, dog tricks, and my husband featuring on our trip and Alaska gen. erally.
 "We travelled on southward until we reached Rock Springs, Wyo., last De- cember, and there we stayed four months raising dogs. We got nine pup pies wintered through so that we now have 2S. They are good dogs, mala- mutes and huskies. The malamutes, you know, are half dog and half wolf The huskies are less than half wolf. They are strong but they are harder to manage than the malamutes.
 "From Rock Springs, we crossed the Red Desert to Wamsutter, Wyo, and then over to Craig, Colo, then on down through Routt county to Eagle. We left there in the early part of August stopped five days at Leadville and came along, making very good time un-