344 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [Sept. 



a great responsibility, but a great expense ; the dog gives 

 little anxiety, requires no housing, and draws no wages. 



There is one other point which must not be omitted in 

 considering the relative services of dogs and men. There are 

 places where men can go but dogs cannot. The greater part 

 of polar travelling has lain over flat sea-ice or comparatively 

 flat land-ice, and this is a condition suitable to the dog ; but 

 on steep slopes and over uneven country the dog is practically 

 useless. It will be seen that a great deal of our travelling 

 lay over uneven country. Everywhere but on the barrier 

 surface we had inequalities to contend with, and in rising to 

 the steep mountain ranges to the west we had to ascend rough 

 uneven glaciers and to traverse surfaces of smooth glassy ice, 

 where dogs would have been a hopeless encumbrance ; men, 

 and men alone, could have dragged our sledges over these 

 rugged tracts. As we were situated, therefore, the services 

 of dogs could only have been utilised to a limited extent, nor 

 is it at all improbable that a similar experience awaits future 

 Antarctic travellers. 



For some time before the start of our sledging season 

 we had strained inventive talent in the hope of devising the 

 best form of harness for our dog-team, one which would give 

 them the best chance of utilising their strength ; but in this 

 respect a dog is a most uncanny animal to suit. Except after 

 an exhausting march he is never still : he will leap about and 

 turn and twist in a manner calculated to tangle the simplest 

 harness, and to this he adds an ineradicable habit of gnawing 

 at his trace. 



The harness, as regards the dog itself, we kept a per- 

 manency. Each dog was measured for his suit, and then it 

 was sewn securely about him. It consisted of a broad breast- 

 band secured to a girth about the fore part of the body. The 

 trace could be secured on either side of this arrangement. 

 At first we tried a double trace to equalise the pull, using 

 some small steel rope, impervious to the animals' teeth. This 

 promised well, and, fitted with swivels, it was a really ingenious 

 contrivance ; but we found later that the wire, though very 



