i 9 o2] DOGS AND THEIR FOOD 341 



of the man. McClintock, who had much experience in this 

 matter, has said : ' Two dogs require the same weight of food 

 as one man, and they will draw a man's full load for about one- 

 fourth a greater distance than the man would. If both man 

 and dogs are but lightly loaded, the dogs will almost double 

 the distance which the man could do.' To this may be added 

 that the dog requires no sleeping-bag, tent, or cooking-appa- 

 ratus, nor, indeed, any of those articles which figured so 

 largely as the permanent weights of a sledge party. Most 

 authorities agree that 100 lbs. is about the maximum load 

 for a dog, and few place its food for a long journey at less 

 than 1 ^ lb. per diem, or something over half the weight con- 

 sumed by a man. 



So far, then, it would appear that a dog is a more efficient 

 machine than a man ; but, on the other hand, it has to be 

 remembered that the dogs cannot travel without man, and they 

 have therefore, in addition to their own food, to carry the food 

 and impedimenta of their drivers. Moreover, the dog is fickle 

 and unstable : its best performance, which has sometimes 

 fallen little short of the marvellous, has been on short 

 journeys, over beaten tracks, and with a light load ; sus- 

 tained effort with a heavy load over a new track seems 

 always to have shown the dog in a much less favourable 

 light. Difficult as it is to ascertain the reason exactly, the 

 fact remains that no very long journey has ever been made 

 by a wholly detached dog-team in the Arctic Regions, from 

 which the animals have returned alive. The subject is com- 

 plicated, and I am aware of treating it somewhat summarily, 

 but I am inclined to state my belief that in the polar regions 

 properly organised parties of men will perform as extended 

 journeys as teams of dogs, provided always that it is intended 

 to preserve the lives of the dogs. 



But if, on the other hand, it is decided to sacrifice the dogs 

 to the supreme object of the journey, the matter is placed on 

 a different footing, and the dog-team is invested with a capacity 

 for work which is beyond the emulation of a party of men. 

 To appreciate this is a matter of simple arithmetic. We can 



