Contracts have been made with two steamboat companies for two trips from Seattle to St. Michael. When the steamers reach St. Michael, the mail will be transferred to the flat-bottomed boats running up the Yukon as far as Circle City. It is believed the boats now run further up.
The contracts for the overland route call for only first-class matter, whereas the steamers in summer carry everything, up to five tons, each trip.
Sledges and Dogs.—The sleds are heavy and shod with bone sawed from the upper edge of the jaw of the bowright whale. The rest of the sled is of spruce and will carry from six to eight hundred pounds. The sleds used in the interior are lighter and differently constructed. They consist of a narrow box four feet long, the front half being covered or boxed in, mounted on a floor eight feet long resting on runners. In this box the passenger sits, wrapped in rabbit skins so that he can hardly move, his head and shoulders only projecting. In front and behind and on top of the box is placed all the luggage, covered with canvas and securely lashed, to withstand all the jolting and possible upsets, and our snow shoes within easy reach.
An important item is the dog-whip, terrible to the dog if used by a skillful hand and terrible to the user if he be a novice; for he is sure to half strangle himself or to hurt his own face with the business end of the lash. The whip I measured had a handle nine inches long and lash thirty feet, and weighed four pounds. The lash was of folded and plaited seal hide, and for five feet from the handle measured five inches round, then for fourteen feet it gradually tapered off, ending in a single thong half an inch thick and eleven feet long. Wonderful the dexterity with which a driver can pick out a dog and almost a spot on a dog with this lash. The lash must be trailing at full length behind, when a jerk and turn of the wrist causes it to fly forward, the thick part first, and the tapering end continuing the motion till it is at full length in front, and the lash making the fur fly from the victim. But often it is made to crack over the heads of the dogs as a warning.
The eleven dogs were harnessed to the front of the sled, each by a separate thong of seal hide, all of different lengths, fastened to a light canvas harness. The nearest dog was about fifteen feet from the sled, and the leader, with bells on her, about fifty feet, the thongs thus increasing in length by about three feet. When the going is good the dogs spread out like the fingers of a hand, but when the snow is deep they fall into each other's tracks in almost single file. As they continually cross and recross each other, the thongs get gradually plaited almost up to the rearmost dog, when a halt is called, the dogs are made to lie down, and the driver carefully disentangles them, taking care that no dog gets away meanwhile. They are guided by the voice, using "husky," that is, Eskimo words: "Owk," go to the right; "arrah," to the left, and "holt," straight on. But often one of the men must run ahead on snowshoes for the dogs to follow him.
The dogs are of all colors, somewhat the height of the Newfoundland, but with shorter legs. The usual number is from five to seven, according to the load.
List of prices that have been current in Dawson City during 1897: