STUBBERUD'S RUSE 371 



with an occasional refreshing breeze of thirteen or four- 

 teen miles an hour. It would have been almost an 

 impossibility to pack the sledges out of doors under 

 these conditions if it was to be done carefully and 

 firmly; and, of course, it had to be so done. Our fixed 

 wire-rope lashings had to be laced together with lengths 

 of thin rope, and this took time; but when properly 

 done, as it was now, the cases were held as though in 

 a vice, and could not move. The zinc plates we had 

 had under the sledges to keep them up in loose snow 

 had been taken off; we could not see that we should 

 have any use for them. In their place we had lashed 

 a spare ski under each sledge, and these were very 

 useful later. By August 22 all the sledges were ready, 

 waiting to be driven away. 



The dogs did not like the cold weather we had now 

 had for so long; when the temperature went down 

 between - 58 and -75 F., one could see by their 

 movements that they felt it. They stood still and raised 

 their feet from the ground in turn, holding each foot up 

 for a while before putting it down again on the cold 

 surface. They were cunning and resourceful in the 

 extreme. They did not care very much for fish, and 



/ / 



some of them were difficult to get into the tents on the 

 evenings when they knew there was fish. Stubberud, 

 especially, had a great deal of trouble with one of the 

 young dogs Funcho was his name. He was born at 

 Madeira during our stay there in September, 1910. On 



