The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1917-12-13
HARDSHPs OF THE
SOUR DOUGH" BOYS

Temperature 50 Below Zero. Pros
peeiing il Confined to the Foo'
Ease Expedients Experience Teach
en- Solitude Brings Insanity.
Alaska, home OF the tin can un,
dog, waste Of snow and ice; th'
graveyard Of ambition; by-word 70
Acil. home Of the famed double-croSs
These and hundreds more like then
arr printed and sung In the Norti
Land. There have been such hard
Ahips, such disappointmonts and suci
suffering that there are few TO finc
things 10 King praises Of.
But this isn't to be q moralism. II
= rather TO tell you Of some of the
interesting expcdients the hardship:
sf the cold land teach those who live
With her.
Where the "sour doughs" beat the
neweomcrs 10 il is on the long pros
pecting hikes or stampede races to
new strikes. Here is where expert
<nce counts.
News will come in TO Yukon town
that a strike has been made far back
IN the hills and of course that means
q race Of about everybody in the town
sho can raise a grub stake or dog.
The movies picture these men as
starting on foot, pulling on their coats
n they run, and other rank foolish
ness. The sowest and best prepared
musher is the one who will stake first,
and the experienced men know it.
SO instead Of harnessing the dogs
and mushing out in ten minutes after
The news, the "sour doughs" begin TO
prepare an outfit, one they can go
through on with the least loss Of time.
Beans will be boiled before the
start. In a mushing race to gold
strike, the camps are where night
hnds the men, often where wood is
very scarce and where few twigs
ubSl Apt ttlt
The beans are not boiled soft, just
enough to cook them through, then
they are spread out and allowed to
freeze. After they are frozen they
are put in bags and they are separate
as dry beans.
A tendcrfoot would boil them and
let them freeze solid and the tender
foot might inst as well throw them
aaay and COOK fresh ones SO far as
tuse saving goes. Try thawing out
a bucket Of solidly frozen beans-or
rather don't try it.
Same with meat. The old timer will
eili his bacon or bear meat into slices
kt It freeze solid in slices and then
pack It into one package. The "chee
ellako" will cut Il in slices and let it
freeze together and he might better
have never sliced it, for frozen to.
eether they arc like a solid chunk Of
Zee. A trail follower will never let
his meat slices freeze together but
once, for If he is going fast he will
not have any meat to eat. In hot
frying pan frozen meat will burn on
one side and be raw on the other.
A mushing outfit can be no stronger
uan its grub outfit, and this is the
main req son why there are thousands
Of square miles in the big North ter
sitory that have never been prospected
and thousands Of acres that have new
sr had human foot on them.
The river towns are the supply base
---aad there are no others. Let man
strike north from the Yukon anywhere
IN the interior Of Alaska and he
knows that he will never get another
sunce OF store provisions until he
eogues back to that town. Ahead of
him are no posts, settlements, supplies
Or even Indian villagcs--for the Indi-
ans and Eslimos invariably live along
Or streams.
So when prospectors start out they !
nust only 90 as far as half their food
supply will carry them--and even this
limit is long chance. When the grub
n half exhausted. they must at once
turn back. and If on the back trail
scvcre billiards should stop them,
sickness or accident should delay, then
thc white death wins out again.
SO n gold hunter in Alaska is very
much like a submarine, he can only
ect so far from his supply base and
live. Many prospector starts out for
. certain locality and he has to beat II
back the minute he gets there--or
xtarve.
Terrible hlizzards often overtake
Eushcrs on these trips, storms that
neither man nor dog can face, and
then one must got In and stay in un-
Ill II Is over, or die.
The thermometer during mid win
lrr viii often 80 so degrees and more
below zero. and Alaskan thermomc-
lcrs are made the reverse Ct state re-
-x~.i,ro sha yaro Ygsark hciny y-,orp