HALTING BETWEEN CAMPS 169 



the body to settle down for a rest while still 

 watching the dogs and urging them on. But 

 before long we are out on the ice again, trotting 

 patiently behind the dogs, encouraging them, 

 and using the whip on any caught slacking (if 

 not foot-sore, and slacking with a cause), glad 

 of exercise to keep up warmth against the cutting 

 cold wind we faced, and that swept over lake ice 

 with the freedom of wind on the sea. 



Travelling light, and on packed snow, with 

 no trail to break, neither hunting en route nor 

 trapping, it was estimated that the dogs were 

 travelling from four to five miles an hour. We 

 were travelling in three stages each day : that 

 is, we halted to make two " fires " between 

 morning start and night camp. In each stage 

 the dogs ran between two and a half hours and 

 three hours. Therefore the minimum distance 

 of travel per day was thirty miles, and the 

 maximum forty-five miles. 



When it was time to make " first fire," a well 

 timbered, sheltered place was selected and the 

 dogs run in to the lake edge. Straightway a few 

 spruce trees were felled on to the lake ice, their 

 branches lobbed off and spread mat-fashion on 

 the snow to accomodate the dogs, whereupon the 

 teams, still harnessed to their sleds, were led on 

 to those " carpets " to there lie down, panting 

 and tired, to cool off while their feet and bodies 

 were safeguarded from contact with ice and snow. 

 Back a little way in the shelter of the woods we 

 then kindled a camp-fire, filled the cans with 

 water from a hole cut with an axe through two 

 feet of lake ice, and soon each one of us was enjoy- 



