Mushing With Dogs in Alaska, Carrying Great LoadsMushing With Dogs in Alaska, Carrying Great Loads

1914

DOGS IN ALASKA.

Carry Great Loads Over Snow That Would Not Hold a Man.

Dogs are surely the real thing for "mushing" in the cold country. To my mind they beat reindeer a mile. Most of them weigh less than 100 pounds, and they distribute their weight over their four feet. So that they can trot over a weak snow crust where a man would sink out of sight by breaking through the crust into the soft snow below. On a good, level, smooth trail ten dogs can trot along with a ton of freight behind them, and 500 or 600 pounds is a fair load on poor trails.

A peculiar thing is that a twelve foot sled, twenty-two to twenty-four inches wide, with runners two and one-quarter inches wide, bearing a load of 600 to 800 pounds, will not sink through a snow crust that will not bear a man. This occurs because two runners two and one-quarter inches wide and twelve feet long give a large area of bearing on the crust. This, coupled with the motion that keeps the sled passing over all the time, accounts for the remarkable fact I am speaking of.

One of the greatest dangers in "mushing" is encountering water under the snow on the river ice in very cold weather or breaking through into hollow places where the stream has sunk away from under the ice. This is the most dangerous of all and often when it happens a man is frozen to death before he can get to shelter or get up his tent and start a fire. — B. S. Rodey in Albuquerque Herald.