THE WINTER PARTY 4^ 



hospitality included a seal for the dogs. And here the story is 

 continued from Baker's diary. 



While supper was being got ready Ama went out and with the help of 

 Nathan (Gillingham's driver) and Lucas (Smith's driver) cut up a whole seal 

 for the teams to feed off. It was a grand sight, as it was brilliant moonlight, 

 and they had hauled the seal out onto the sea ice, and were cutting it up there. 

 Grouped round the seal in a semi-circle were all the teams, about 40 dogs 

 in all. Henry and I were either side of the cutters keeping the dogs at a 

 distance with our whips and Doc and Gillingham were among the dogs. The 

 interesting part was to see how the teams grouped themselves, Henry's was 

 opposite him and mine and Dennis' teams sat opposite me, while Doc's and 

 Gillingham's teams respectively sat down by their masters' sides. Smith's 

 team, not having their master there, sat on the extreme right of my team. . . . 

 As soon as the seal was cut up into small bits one of the Eskimos gave the 

 word and the whole crowd avalanched onto the food and there was surprisingly 

 little fighting for so many dogs feeding. 



The next morning the party had to back-track about four miles 

 to the mouth of the Man o' War brook and then they started the 

 long trek up and over the Kiglerpaits, a rugged range barring the 

 way. The trail led upwards over the brook and a number of small 

 lakes, all of course frozen over, with occasional steep climbs up 

 small hills and down the other side. The snow was soft and the 

 going poor and Baker's large, heavily-loaded komatik made 

 progress very slow. The teams would have to be reorganised if 

 they were to reach the Kurukuluk shack by nightfall, this being 

 the goal for the day. Dennis' small komatik was left behind now, 

 his team being harnessed with Buck's while Smith and Gillingham 

 each lent two dogs from their teams, giving Buck 14 dogs on the 

 big komatik with Dennis while Doc went with Stevenson and 

 Henry on the other komatik. 



At last the top of the pass over the Kiglerpaits was reached, 

 but the descent on the northern side was almost worse than the 

 climb; the snow was very soft and the big komatik kept taking 

 charge and overtaking the dogs. On one occasion when the dogs 

 were going all out, they went one side of a boulder while the 

 komatik tried to go the other, the result being that the komatik 

 rolled right over, throwing its riders, and then onto its runners 

 again ; without a stop Buck and Dennis were on the komatik again 

 as it careered madly onwards. There were a number of sudden 

 drops of ten feet or more which the dogs saw only at the last 



