MEETING OF THE WILD MEN 185 



glee over the trick they had played him. He never used a whip 

 upon them. No snowshoer could be found who was swift 

 enough to break a trail for those dogs and no horse ever over- 

 took them. Once, while going from Oak Point to Winnipeg, 

 Factor Clark's train ran down six wolves, allowing him to shoot 

 the brutes as he rode in his carriole. Another time they over- 

 hauled and threw a wolf which Mr. Clark afterward stunned, 

 and then bound its jaws together. When the brute came to, it 

 found itself harnessed in the train in place of one of the dogs, 

 and thus Chief Factor Clark drove a wild timber-wolf into the 

 city of Winnipeg." 



"They must have been wonderful dogs," remarked Father 

 Jois, "but it's too bad they don't breed such dogs nowadays." 



"That's so," returned the Chief Factor. "Twenty or thirty 

 years ago at each of the big posts — the district depots — they 

 used to keep from forty to fifty dogs, and at the outposts, from 

 twenty to thirty were always on hand. At each of the district 

 depots a man was engaged as keeper of the dogs and it was his 

 duty to attend to their breeding, training, and feeding." 



"Speaking of feeding, what do you consider the best food for 

 dogs.»^" I asked. 



"By all means pemmican," replied the Chief Factor, "and 

 give each dog a poimd a day. The next best rations for dogs 

 come in the following order: two pounds of dried fish, four 

 pounds of fresh deer meat, two rabbits or two ptarmigan, one 

 pound of flour or meal mixed with two ounces of tallow. That 

 reminds me of the way the old half-breed dog-drivers used to 

 do. In such districts as Pelly and Swan River, where fish 

 and other food for dogs was scarce, we had frequently to feed 

 both men and dogs on rations of flour. Some of the half-breeds 

 would leave their ration of flour with their family, and 

 count on eating the dog's ration while on the trip and 

 letting the poor brutes go hungry, just because the dogs be- 

 longed to the Company. So we put a stop to that by mixing 



