584 



Popular Science Monthly 



© Brown & Dawson 



Madeira's winter 

 sport in summer time — 

 sliding down a mountain 

 on a wicker -chair sled 



Sliding Down a Mountain on a 

 Summer Sled 



INSTEAD of wheeling you down the 

 mountains of Madeira, as you might 

 suppose, the hardy natives slide you down. 

 You seat yourself in a comfortable wicker 

 chair mounted on a wooden sled fitted with 

 steel runners and come down the rocky path 

 of the mountain side as if you were sliding 

 on snow. The human locomotive in the 

 rear steers you down the mountain and 

 pulls the empty basket-cars up again. 



The Only Railroad on the Seward 

 Peninsula, Alaska, is a "Pupmobile" 



THE "pupmobile" is a 

 passenger train drawn 

 over a regular railroad track 

 by dog-power. The one 

 shown in the photograph is 

 the only one in existence. It 

 carries passengers from 

 Nome, Alaska, across the 

 level land near that town 

 into the mountains. 



The track is a narrow-gage 

 railroad built in 1900. A 

 high tax was placed on rail- 



roads in Alaska soon after that, and as 

 there was not enough traffic over the 

 road to justify the expense of operating 

 locomotives, the regular train service 

 was discontinued. Then the "pupmobile" 

 was instituted. The accommodation for 

 passengers consists of a platform on which 

 are two seats. To this from seven to 

 fifteen dogs are harnessed, and the rate 

 at which they travel compares favorably 

 with much of our "rapid transit." Fur- 

 thermore, it is about the cheapest rail- 

 road to operate that we know of. Six 

 pounds of dog meat a day is considered to 

 be a fair expenditure of "fuel." 



From seven to fifteen dogs draw the two-seated passenger 

 car over a narrow-gage track at "rapid transit" sp4d 



