14 RECONNAISSANCE IN NORTHERN ALASKA IX 1901. 



appreciated to ]>:iss without notice. Thanks are also due to Mr. Charles Brauer ami 

 others for hospitality and courtesies received at Cape Smyth, and to Captain Ericson 

 for transportation on the steamship Arctic from the Corwin coal mine-, near Cape 

 Lisburae, to Nome. 



The determination- of the fossils collected on the trip and referred to in this 

 report were made by Drs. Lester F. Ward. W. H. Dall, T. W. Stanton. George 11. 

 Girty, Mr. Charles Schuchert, and Prof. "William M. Fontaine, each dealing \\ it li the 

 fossils from the horizons ,,f which he has special knowledge. The coal analyses and 

 mineral tests were made by Messrs. George Steiger and H. N. Stokes in the chemical 

 laboratory of the Survey, and the assays for gold and silver by E. E. Burlingame 

 & Co.. of Denver. Colo. Fig. 1 (p. 40) and other information bearing on the Cape 

 Lisburue region have been generously contributed by Mr. A. G. Maddren. 



METHODS OF WORK. 



Dog sledding. — As the success of the work required the surveyors to reach 

 the field before the break-up of winter, and Point Barrow by September 1, the 

 party set out from Skagway early in February, and. after proceeding over the Coast 

 Range by the White Pass Railway, traveled by dog sled from White Horse 1,200 miles 

 down the Yukon to Bergman, which was reached April 10. Traveling by this means 

 is known, in the language of the country, as "mushing,*' and the traveler is called a 

 "musher." The "musher" does not ride on the sled, which is used only for carry- 

 ing the absolutely necessary supplies and luggage, but follows the sled afoot and 

 urges the dogs forward, or runs ahead on snowshoes to break a trail where none 

 exists, or where, as frequently happens, it has been drifted over. To keep trail 

 breaking and friction in travel at a minimum the dogs are all hitched tandem, from 

 tive to nine in a team. The Survey party used four teams, or about forty dogs in all. 

 Their feed, which is given once a day, usually at night, consists of some cereal, rice, 

 meal, or flour, cooked with meat, fish, or grease. Rice and bacon, flavored with a 

 little dried salmon, is best. It is affirmed by experienced and reliable prospectors 

 throughout Alaska that on arduous prospecting trips, where a man is dependent for 

 sustenance on the food supply packed on his own back, he, too, can go farther and 

 accomplish a greater amount of hard work on rice and bacon than on an}' other ration. 



At the present da} T two classes of dogs are used for sledding in Alaska — the 

 "inside" or native, consisting of Siwash and Malemut, and the "outside," consisting 

 of various breeds of imported dogs, principally from the United States. The outside 

 dog excels iu intelligence and is usually desirable for a leader, but the native dog is 

 best for all-round service and for long, hard trips, as he requires less food and care, 

 and having a dense pelt, much like that of the wolf, is less affected by the severity of 

 the climate, hardship, and exposure. He is also less liable to become footsore on a 

 trail of roug'h ice and freezing' slush. 



