SLEDGE DOGS 



,ake turns at it, because it gives the team the chance 



f resting by turns from the weight of the pulling. 



A. dog that must work all the time soon wears out, 



,nd it always seemed better to me and my drivers to 



ake fifteen or seventeen dogs for a long trip and 



maintain a good pace easily, than to force a team 



>f ten or eleven to do the work, as some of the 



Eskimos do. 



Good dogs do not need the whip to make them 

 rot, and my drivers were generally content to shout 

 -t them or to flick the lash to and fro as a reminder. 

 Nhen the dogs were tired one or the other of the 

 nen used to run in front of them. Often the men 

 nust have been as tired as the dogs themselves, but 

 10 matter ; with the utmost cheerfulness big heavy 

 ulius would take off his sealskin dicky and tuck it 

 mder the lashings of the sledge, and run ahead as if 

 jie were a mere boy instead of the staid father of a 

 arge family, and in a fair way to be a grandfather 

 Before so very long. When he had run enough for 

 |iis purpose he would come back to the sledge for a 

 moke while the other man took up the running, and 

 o between them they used to hurry the team over 

 he last ten or fifteen miles of a day's trip in two or 

 hree hours, and sometimes land me at the snug 

 varmth of a proper house instead of dooming me to 

 n uncomfortable apology for rest in a snow hut 

 hough the snow hut would have served them very 

 /ell if they had been alone. It was an odd dance 

 hat brought the man back to the sledge from his 

 lace in front of the dogs : it would have been use- 

 ?ss to try to get to one side and allow the dogs to 

 o past, for the dogs follow the runner with an 

 bsolutely blind perseverance ; accordingly, the only 



