148 VIKINGS OF TO-DAY 



strained and worked as hard as ever, but it never 

 broke the single thread. 



When the ice is good, dogs will maintain eight 

 miles an hour, at other times they can only advance 

 at a walk ; while, yet again, when the ice is surging 

 up and down over the sea, and wind and snow 

 are against them, the weight of the sleigh will even 

 drag them backwards. These dogs are exceedingly 

 heavy, and their dragging power is enormous. It 

 takes a full-grown man to hold one in leash. A 

 team of fifteen dogs took six people on the sleigh 

 " like a house on fire." They are very quick to 

 recognise the danger of being cut off from the land, 

 especially when water comes over the ice, and they 

 will then throw their whole strength into the work. 

 Many times when a driver, overtaken by night, per- 

 haps having missed the trail from heavy snow, and 

 quite exhausted gives up the unequal struggle, the 

 unerring instinct of the dogs finds full play, and 

 they rarely fail to reach shelter of some kind. At 

 night the traces are unhitched and stamped down 

 into the snow, for lack of anything to tie them to. 

 This keeps them from straying. Their dole of food 

 is then given them, probably rotten caplin and seal 

 blubber; after which they sleep out on the snow, 

 even when the temperature is 50 below zero. Yet 

 if other dogs are near, and they can get at them, 

 most of the night will be spent fighting. It is often 

 the capacity for carrying food for the dogs that 

 limits the journey. To prevent this, the Moravians 



