ARCTIC AND OTHER DRAUGHT DOGS. 



527 



tion in circumstances which made the use 

 of the sailing boat impossible, and the 

 modern explorer into Arctic regions regards 

 his teams of sledge dogs as being as much a 



SAMOYEDE CH. OLAF OUSSA. 

 PROPERTY OF MRS. FREDERIKA RINGER. 



necessary part of his equipment as fuel and 

 provisions. 



It was in Siberia that the sledge dog 

 was first applied to the service of Polar ex- 

 ploration. Already in the seventeenth and 

 eighteenth centuries the Russians undertook 

 very extensive sledge journeys, and charted 

 the whole of the Siberian coast from the 

 borders of Europe to Behring Strait. But 

 this means of covering great distances with 

 dog-drawn sledges attained its highest de- 

 velopment under McClintock. While the 

 Russians, however, travelled with a large 

 number of dogs and only a few men, 

 McClintock and other adventurous Britons 

 used few dogs and many men. The American 

 explorer, Lieutenant Peary, saw the wisdom 

 of employing as many dogs as possible, often 

 having a hundred and more together. 

 Nansen, who knew the utmost importance 

 of having good sledge haulers, took as large 

 a kennel as he could accommodate, and 

 added many of his own later breeding to be 



ready for his great drive in search of the 

 Pole. Thirty of them were Ostiak dogs, 

 but as many more were of the East Siberian 

 breed which are better sledge workers than 

 those of the West. Nansen owed the success 

 of his expedition to his canine companions ; 

 without them his memorable journey with 

 Johansen would have been impossible. The 

 hardships of this adventure into the polar 

 loneliness were severe upon the dogs, and 

 many had to be killed in turn to provide 

 food for their comrades of the trace. 



" On Wednesday evening Haren was killed ; 

 poor beast, he was not good for much latterly, 

 but he had been a first-rate dog, and it was 

 hard, I fancy, for Johansen to part with him ; 

 he looked so sorrowfully at the animal before 

 it went to the happy hunting-grounds, or 

 wherever it may be that draught dogs go to ; 

 perhaps to places where there are plains of 

 level ice and no ridges and lanes. There are 

 only two dogs left now Suggen and Kaifas 

 and we must keep them alive as long as we can, 

 and have use for them." * 



A HARD-WORKING ESKIMO FOREGOER. 

 PROPERTY OF THE HUDSON BAY COMPANY. 



* The quotation is from Nansen's " Farthest 

 North," and the implication in the last phrase 

 is a doubt as to whether the two travellers or 

 the two dogs would be the survivors. 



