38 CHALLENGER 



Driving the dog teams had also to be practised. A komatik is 

 normally pulled by seven or so dogs which are harnessed by a 

 single bridle which, at some distance ahead of the komatik, has 

 short extensions or traces leading to the dogs on either side of 

 it. From experience it was found that traces and bridles made of 

 I -inch circumference sisal rope brought from the ship were far 

 easier to manipulate and were also stronger than the sealskin line 

 normally used for this purpose. Little difficulty in the actual 

 driving of the dogs was experienced in the early days, although 

 much practice was required to get used to handling the 4^-foot 

 thonged sealskin whips, which, when well manipulated, can be 

 used to flick a delinquent dog in exactly the right place from a 

 position on or behind the komatik ; the inexperienced driver often 

 ends up by giving his own cold face a savage cut with the end of 

 the thong. 



So the early days passed. The woodpile grew higher and higher, 

 camp and ration boxes were made up and canvas was nailed around 

 the eaves of the hospital to keep out the smallest ingress of chill 

 air. 



On I 2 th December the advance gear for a survey camp — tents 

 and rations, hop poles and flags for survey marks — was hauled by 

 komatiks to the first site selected, at the mouth of a small bay on 

 the eastern shore of Satosoakkuluk, about eight miles from Nain. 

 This gear was cached among the trees at the site and the teams re- 

 turned to base. It was intended to come out on the following day, 

 but, as was to happen so often throughout the coming winter, the 

 barometer fell during the night and it came on to blow hard from 

 the westward. The visibility on such occasions is cut down to a 

 few hundred yards, which, combined with the bitterness of the 

 wind, makes travel impossible. So the dogs huddled on the lee 

 side of the old hospital and the men lay up all that day, but hauled 

 out to the camp site next day, and having set up the camp carried 

 out a considerable amount of triangulation in the area. A week 

 later camp was struck and the teams had a hard trip back to Nain 

 as the komatik was heavily laden and one dog was sick, leaving a 

 team of six dogs to haul across the Bay against a strong headwind 

 blowing from the west. As soon as the base was reached the 

 party were helped by a number of Eskimos to unharness the dogs 



