ame places and
acquainted with the route.

[Sidenote: THE SEWARD PENINSULA]

Travelling, like so many other things, is very different on the Seward
Peninsula. The constant winds beat down and harden the snow until it has
a crust that will carry a man anywhere. There are only two means by
which snow becomes crusted; one is this packing and solidifying by the
wind, and the other is thawing and freezing again. There is much less
wind in the interior than on the coast, and usually much less snowfall,
and the greater part of the surface of the country is protected by
trees; the climate, being continental instead of marine, is not subject
to such great fluctuations of temperature. A thaw sufficiently
pronounced or sufficiently prolonged to put a stout crust on the snow
when freezing is resumed, is a very rare thing in the interior and a
common thing on the coast. So a striking difference in travel at once
manifests itself; in the interior all the snow is soft except on a
beaten trail itself, while in the Seward Peninsula all the snow is alike
hard. The musher is not confined to trails--he can go where he pleases;
and his vehicle is under no necessity of conforming in width to a
general usage of the country--it may be as wide as he pleases. Hence the
hitching of dogs two and three abreast; hence the sleds of twenty-two,
twenty-four, or twenty-six inches in width. My tandem rig aroused the
curiosity of those who saw it. Hence many other differences also.
Hitherto we had not dreamed of watering the dogs since snow fell; now I
found their mouths bloody from their ineffectual attempts to dig up the
hard snow with their teeth, and had to water them night and morning. It
is not the custom on the Seward Peninsula to cook for the dogs, and dog
mushers there argue the needlessness of that trouble. But the true
reason is other and obvious. It is difficult for the traveller to get
enough wood to cook for himself, let alone the dogs. On the Seward
Peninsula skis are extensively used when there is soft snow; the
prevalence of brush almost everywhere in the interior renders them of
little use--and they are, therefore, little used, snow-shoes being
universal.

So, as in nearly all such matters everywhere, local peculiarities, local
differences, local customs, usually arise from local conditions, and the
wise man will commonly conform so soon as he discovers them. There is
almost always a sufficient reason for them.

[Sidenote: A "SIDLIN