Mat 1 /, 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



303 



fourth day, looRed as if be had swallowed a keg. The na- 

 tive* always dislike to fcsd them Heartily just before a day's 

 work, for' then they are the very laziest creatures on top of 

 earth, and require double the amount of usual whipping to 

 get any work out of them. 



The" whip is just the leual.li of the longest harness trace. 

 so as lo iu-l touch the leader, although I should add that he 

 is whipped loss than any other dog iu the team. The whip 

 is a sin'j'le long, supple lash of tanned xnl (ori-jouk) skiu 

 with a very short handle, like that on the western "black- 

 suake" whip- They are the best trained men with a. whip I 

 hsVB ever seen, and' can single out a solitary dog in a perfect 

 moving compact mass of them, and cut him with the lash 

 on any particular ear that Ihey desire. From children up 

 they are constant I v using this instrument, and thereby ac- 

 quire a vcrsatililv'with it that no white man can ever equal. 

 In some parts of the Arctic the whip is uuknowu, and the 

 dogs are driven by a small, stout slick, held iu the hand 

 when not used, and hurled at any refractory or lazy dog iu 



the team when needed. As 



the sledge goes by the active 



driver rescues it to repeat tin 



operation when needed. 



It would be useless, I think 



. to describe the many varieties 



of sledges to be found iu the 



whole extent of the Arctic, 



for thev vary with nearly 6V 



•ry tribe, but 1 shall confine 



myself'to those few kinds th; 



t came under my personal Ob- 



servation. The most, primiu 



■cand simple sledge of all is 



one hewed directly out of the 



ir.-lied and runners. One 



■would think this vehicle extx 



■mc-ly fragile, and liable to go 



to pieces at any moment; but 



so long as the owner keeps 



along the level shore ice, 



its extreme "corpulent" and 



stroua construction renders 



t a rather serviceable convey- 



anco; besides, it has the advf 



ntage of always havina ice on 



the bottoms of its ruuuers, a 



ttOSt accessary adjunct to the 



sledges of this region of the «\ 



orld. A sledge with ice spread 



evenly and smoothly over the 



bone shoe of a sledge can lie 



Hauled over the hard snow-di 



ifts of an Arctic winter with 



one-third the dogs it would o 



herwise take, and nothing in 



the world makes the native e 



edgomar so angry as to strike 



his runner against, a half-con 



•ealod stone and strip the beau- 



to Arctic sledging, and of the importance of sledging to an 

 expedition that desires to accomplish anything in these 

 regions, and also that this art. is solely monopolized by these 

 people, it at once shows the great advantage of having them 

 as allies and the comparative folly of sledge journeys in rough 

 Arctic countries without them. If a rough, stony place 

 interposes itself where the projecting rocks are so numerous 

 that it really becomes impossible to get through, ail the per- 

 sons in the party will take off their reindeer coats and spread 



tiful ice-shoe from his sled^. 



And now let me describe this "icing" the runners of a 

 sledge briefly, and speak of its great benefits. When a 

 sledge is being built, the last thing to do, if the builder has 

 the "material, Ts to shoe. it. with a 'batten-like strip of bone, 

 taken from the jaw of a whale, and which shoe, being a little 

 wider than the runner, projects over on both sides, as shown 

 in cross section, in Fig. A. Lashings of whalebone or large 



wood screws enable them to be fastened securely, and this 

 hone shoe is generally' rounded off a trifle on its bearing sur- 

 face or under aide. To "ice" the sledge, it is ttuued bottom 

 side up. and the first coat, put on, This consists of pieces of 

 snow about as big as one's double fist dipped iu water to 

 render it slushy and soft, and the native with the open palm 

 of his hand applies it. to the runner, rubbing it backward and 

 forward until it forms a level, smooth, and solidly frozen 

 surface of about two feet along the runner and crimps over and 

 binds on the projecting flanges of the bone shoe, as shown in 

 cross section in trig. B. This, of course, is continued the 



roulci 



iched 

 nbera of 



whole length of the runner. This frozen snow is opaque 

 and looks like a mass of grouud glass, and when solidly 

 frozen, as it will be even while the man is rubbing it, the 

 process is ready for the second coat or finishing touches, so 

 to speak. 



Tlie native now takes his mouth as full of water as it will 

 hold, and sends a gentle spray over the frozen snow on the 

 runners, and this' freezes almost as fast as it strikes, the 

 sledgeman at the same time rapidly running the palm of his 

 hand backward and forward over the surface to give it a 

 perfect polish. Sometimes he uses a piece of bear skin to 

 save his hand the severe friction, but the last few strokes 

 are always with the open palm .jf the hand. 



This blushed, tie sledge-runners are as slippery as one 

 can possibly imagine, and truly 1 do not think I exaggerate 

 the comparison when I say that it is as much easier to pull 

 a sledge, nicely and properly iced over one that is not, as it 

 would be for a horse to pull a truck with the wheels on over 

 one that had them taken off. My largest, sledge was one so 

 heavy that It was hard work for any of us men to turn it 

 over "so that Toolooah could ice it, and it would have taken 

 a couple and probably three to budge it if the runners were 

 uiiiced, yet when the'icing had been completed, I could take 

 my little finger (and often have done it,) hooked on one of 

 the cross slats, and work this ponderous vehicle backward 

 and forward through the distance I could swing my arm. 

 Several times, without noticing that the snow was a little 

 bit unlevel, vv e have turned the iced sledge over gently to 

 prevent fracturing the glacial shoe, and have been surprised 

 lo see it start down the grade by its own weight. They an 

 almost as prone to this as a well-oiled wheel vehicle on rails. 



Of course such a valuable, but frail, adjuncl Lo their most 

 important means of transportation must necessarily be i. 

 cause for the liveliest solicitude and care of the native sledge 

 man to sec that it is not injured iu any way so as to com 

 promise its utility. In no place does the superiority of a 

 sledgeman show to such good advantage as iu bis ability 

 conduct liia sledge through a low, rocky portage connect 

 two lakes or over the top of a ridge where thi 



needy blown away 

 runners against the 



snow in every direi 

 Toolooah, lake las twer 

 couple of hundred yard 

 spread one's coat, wit hoi 

 unscathed; but it requ 

 the front of the sledge f 

 ing_ the rear thi 



thout stripping the ice from his sledgi 

 uy stones that are peeping through the 

 i." J have seen my best sledge driver, 

 ■nty foot sledge through a place for a 

 ! . mi ew it would seem impossible to 

 Jul covering a stone, and yet corne out 

 uired the work of a Hercules bohbing 

 ui one side to the other and watch- 

 not thrown against or over a rock, 

 rbot- 



sqam 



So important is it to keeptl: 

 touis, that if it is ripped off by 

 will stop at the Lirsl lake or ri\ 

 to wet the. snow and spiirikk 

 they, may have to dig through 

 get it. 



When one reflects upon the value of this simple accessory 



_ on the sledgi 

 nv accident the E: 

 r where they 

 tlie second coating, though 

 2ven or eight feet of ice to 



them hair side up over the stones that the runner would 

 strike in passing by. Late in the spring, when the tempera- 

 ture commences to approach freezing from a much lower 

 standard, the ice will not. retain its hold so well on the bone 

 shoes, and when it reaches melting extra precautious have lo 

 be taken to protect it. Halting to rest on a warm, sunny 

 day, the sledge is swung around 80 that oue runner is pro- 

 tected by ils own shadow, while the other has a number of 

 reindeer "clothes, blankets or auylhing of that, nature spread 

 along over it to keep the sun oft. The least little bump at 

 these temperatures is very liable to knock off a foot or two, 

 and then the rest is easily scaled off. When it becomes so 

 warm that, the ice will no longer retain its hold, the snow ou 

 which the sledge runs becomes of a soft, consistency that 

 allows the bare bone shoes of the runners to glide over it 

 with comparative ease, and everybody now* wants lo ride on 

 the sledge, as when walking they" are sinking up to the ankles 

 or knees iu the half slushy mass. 



The worst experience 1 ever had in sledging was on Bac 

 River in December, 1879. This stream is full of rap 

 which keep open the whole winter, and the rising stei 

 from them (for they look like huge boiling cauldrons of 

 water in the intense cold of winter) freezes into a fine, 

 gritty, sand-like mass of snow that, covers the true snow- 

 drifts with a mass like so much rosin, and that sticks to the 

 sledge runners with almost as much persistency in any temper- 

 ature below —50 P., and 1 think the thermometer averaged 

 lower than that while we were ou the river. But even this 

 was not the worst obstacle, for all tlie snow that had lodged 

 ou the river ice was along the cracks in the ice, nearly all of 

 which seemed to be perpendicular to the axis of the stream. 

 We thus bad an alternation of snow and ice every few yards, 

 and often every few feet, The ice from the ri 

 strip that from" the sledge, and when the suow w 

 it, would require all the additional aid from the n 

 the party to drag it over. Either ice or snow r alone would 

 have allowed us to proceed at a good round gait, but their 

 alternating condition made it the most, annoying and labori- 

 ous work I have ever experienced, and we always felt lucky 

 if tlie igkoi in the morning's camp were out of sight around 

 some bend of the river when -we picked out our camp for 

 the evening. At the very first favorable opportunity 1 

 abandoned the river and found the hilly country between it 

 and Hudson's Bay much better adapted for sledging than 

 even its level bed. 



While ou the Koogmijook, a branch of the Great Pish 

 River, during the spring so late that the ice would not stay 

 ou the runners, we found a great deal of the suow T on the 

 river ice mixed with sand, blown from the banks during 

 high winus, and this acted like sandpaper on the hare bone 

 shoes, and by the V. me we had left, it we gtound those shoes to 

 about half their usual thickness and felt a litlle bit uneasy 

 that they might break under hard knocks, which they did do 

 several times, but, never enough to seriously compromise us. 

 In a great many parts of the Arctic it is impossible to 

 procure tlie bone from a whale for sledge shoes, ami then 

 the wet suow is applied directly to the bottom of the runner, 

 and before its application is mixed with boggy mud full of 

 root stocks and grass stems that, bind it together, A.fnvor- 

 ite mixture when it can be obtained is the undigested mass 

 taken from the stomach of a reindeer. Among theSetschil- 

 luks, who confine their sledging to the coasts of the Arctic 

 Sea, where it is of the best character, and who kill no whales 

 to furnish them with bone, we find the runners shoed witli 

 pure ice. Trenches the length of the runners arc dug in the 

 ice, and into these the ruuners are lowered two or three 

 inches, yet not touching the bottom of the trench by fully 

 the same distance. Water is then poured and allowed to 

 freeze, when the sledge is lifted out shod with a run- 

 ner of perfectly pure and transparent ice. So transparent is 

 this ice at lime's that when the sledge is in rapid motion it 

 may produce a peculiar optical delusion, oue imagining tnat 

 the' sledge is some three or four inches from the ground, 

 swinging out behind like a kite's tail in its rapid flight. 

 Where not even wood can be procured the ice sledge already 

 explained is adopted or the skin of a polar bear or musk-ox 

 may be used if it be dragged with the hair pointing back- 

 ward. 



The ratio of width to length in their sledges varies with 

 tlie different tribes. The Hudson Bay Esquimaux use about 

 the proportions usually seen in boys' sledges used for coast- 

 ing, although five or six times as large. The Kinnepetoos 

 of Chesterfield Inlet, ou the contrary, often have sledges of 

 twenty-live to thirty feet in length and only a foot or foot 

 and a half in width, claiming that those "go over rough 

 ground much easier than the common kind. 



In putting a load on a sledge a pole at (lie height of a per 

 son's breast' is often lashed on the fore end of the load so 

 that it will project on both sides a couple of feet, and with a 

 person on either side pushing on this, the sledge is easily con- 

 trolled. 



"How fast can a sledge go?" or "How far canyon travel in 

 a day with them?" is an indefinite question, aslied nearly as 

 of ten as the one about the size of the Esquimaux dog, and 

 the reply is about as satisfactory when I say they can 

 travel nearly as fast and fully as far as a horse, J f tlie 

 sledge has a maximum load (say 150 to 200 pounds per dog on 

 salt, water ice or half that ou inland sledging) the party can 

 make from ten to twenty miles a day, and keep it up about 

 the same as a light expedition of troops. With a splendid 

 team of ten to fifteen dogs, with only a driver and a light 

 sledge, we could make seventy -five or even a hundred miles 

 a day, especially along the coast. While in the heavy, hum- 

 ruoeky ice of Victoria Channel, 1 only made ten miles, with 

 a fair load, in fourteen hours' hard work; yet I have been 

 told of an incident where life and death hung on the rapid- 

 ity of action, and forty -five dogs were, hitched to a light 

 sledge, with two splendid drivers working on the team from 

 each side, when twelve or thirteen miles'were made iu less 

 than double as many minutes to rescue a lost sailor from the 

 whaling ships iu Repulse Bay. 



QUIET SPORT.-III. 



BT MILLARD. 



1^ ARLY on the morning of our third day at Spider Lake, 

 -J Roy and Glen, with one of the guide's, started for an- 

 other lake about three miles northeast, intending to remain 

 there a couple of days and then join us agaiu. They car- 

 ried blankets and edibles, and merrily took the trail. 



Ward went back Lo his first principles of angling, and 

 produced his bag of worms with Ihe remark that, now he 

 stood upon his native soil and could tell when he had a fish 

 properly hooked; and would discard the fly for the day, at, 

 least, lie admired Green's style and its results, but he did 

 not. care to learn if too fast. "Go slow and learn to peddle," 

 was his motto, and he woidd give the light tackle another trial 

 on the morrow ; so we will leave him at, the lake and follow 

 Hick down the out let. It is a pretty stream, and as General 

 Sherman said of Ihe Rio Grande, so crooked that one cannot 

 tell which side of it, be is on. Every rod of it is lovely with 

 its distinct and special characteristics, suggesting innumera- 

 ble pictures to the artistic eve. 



Varied as the lints and forms of the kaleidoscope, at each 

 turn it seemed as if some fantastic water sprite was trans- 

 posing itt look and character. Here its whole surface, is 

 flecked with ripples and foam, each ripr." 



of diamonds aud tnakiug 

 A wax it skur 



ad el 



sweet 



is children's lauahfer. 



laling 



kind bumping its head 



s, sera 



ling its sides on the 





its headlong race, it 



i deep 



and darksome pool, 



h you 



remember is consider- 



d ace, 



it vividly reflects the 



quietly hugs the shore ami in 

 black M tlie ten of spades, whi 

 ably blacker than the celcbrat 



far-reaching branches which over-arch it. So it, journeys 

 on, with ripple and pool, never-failing springs adding their 

 tribute to its volume. "There is melody in the fall of the 

 cataract, and the rush of many waters is sweet to the senses," 

 but "with jill thy faults 1 love thee" quiet 



A few yards below I 

 those quiet pools lya 



of fallen trees was one of 

 off the eddying waters, a resting 

 ere tired from battling with the 

 ild just naturally drop into it, as 



drop ink, , 

 letimesgro 



nu 



iry and 



ut then 



this 

 chat 

 a hs 



Pennsylvania.— Jefferson, Pa., May 7.— 1 have been 

 spending the past week in the country, and by observation 

 1 find the quail have wintered well here. I took a stroll to 

 the woodlands on the 4th inst., and in my rambles have seen 

 several pairs, and the welcome notes of' Bob White can be 

 heard on all sides.— Rambler. 



B blessed moment, and perhaps he 

 with the fellow who keeps the 

 ■efused a variety of popular flies; 



1 it, is never advisable lo waste one's time by loo many 



its over the same place and fish. Do not make him too 

 suspicious of your intentions, but mark the spot and move 

 on unconcernedly, and perhaps towaid sunset, if you return, 

 you may bring him to your creel. Possibly sundry- pricks 

 that he has received iu the past are not forgotten, "and the 

 remembrance of them makes him the more wary; for like a 

 skilful boxer or swordsman he is only biding his time aud 

 Opportunity to seize a favorable opening when he can deliver 

 his blow and escape the return; and in a careless moment, 

 when Dick's leader is slack upon the water, he stretches it 

 to the breaking point, and then suddenly breaks it. 



Dick gave utterance to a rather audible "Devil take my 

 carelessness I" as he waded ashore to repair the damage, "a 

 mingled look of disgust and disappointment overshadowing 

 the usual serenity of his face. 



Some can find solace and comfort in familiar quotations 

 for every disappointment aud trouble. Others draw a tem- 

 porary' consolation from their flasks, and others have re- 

 course to their tobacco pouches. Dick had no flask, and for- 

 getting any passage touching his present disaster, he turned 

 with a sigh of regret to his briarwood, endeavoring to ex- 

 tinguish his disappointment by lighting his pipe, and adul- 

 terating the sweel scented air with the fumes of cut plug. 



Fortune not only turned toward him the cold shoulder, 

 but Justice raised the bandage from her eyes, surveyed the 

 scene, gave, a sly expressive wink as she jeplaced the ban- 

 dage and said, "Uuiph! served you right, youugman. Next 

 time Miss Goodie Luck offers you her sunniest and sweetest 

 favors, do not dally and trifle too long, else she may again 

 change her mind, " She is the most capricious of her sex." 



By the time a new leader with its cast of flies had been 

 adjusted and his pipe finished, Richard was himself again. 

 What did the trilling mishap amount to? No more than 

 the aching tooth the old village doctor pulled when Dick 

 wore a roundabout. Many a man of less sunny tempera- 

 ment would have succumbed to despondency long enough 

 to have reeled up aud gone home. Dick appreciated the 

 fact that there were as good fish iu the sea as ever were 

 caught, and unanimously passing a resolution to be more 

 careful, he waded into the stream with a thickly settled de- 

 termination that if it were possible, to capture any fish he 

 would make the possibility a certainty, and as they hegan 

 to rise here and there he was soon iu the full enjoyment of 

 an absorbing pleasure that amply compensated him 

 for his previous inattention. So eagerly did they rise 

 among the ripples aud the eddies iu the pools ana quiet 

 reaches, coming from under banks and boulders after the 

 enticing aud swindling morsels, that they exhibited a self- 

 ishness of which a spoiled child w*ould he ashamed. 



It requires an almost fabulous amount of self-control and 

 denial for an angler to reel up aud go back to camp when 

 the fish are in biliug humor. The creel may be tilled, but 

 the temptation for one more cast, and then another and 

 another, is powerful, aim the angler who can resist it is one 

 in a score. The angler should scorn to fish for count, but 

 so many of his angling days are so barren of results, and so 

 comparatively disastrous, thai he improves the opportunity 

 wheti the fish won't let go. But he does it fairly, and every 

 fish he creels is of use to him or his friends. The fingerliug's 

 he throws back to life and to wisdom; the old and large 

 ones he does not waste.- That was the class of anglers to 

 which Dick belonged. lie had enough when he could have 

 had more ; and then 



The angler campward tramped his pleasant way. 



Dick had hardly reached the shanty when Gleu and Roy, 

 with their guides, returned. They had caught what Ihere 

 was of the latter end of the morning fishing, but ll had been 

 barren of results. The fish they reported as more seldom 

 than four dollar bills, and as they had none in the concrete, 

 they got the guide lo damn them all iu the abstract, but, that 

 would hardly explain the reason of their unexpected return, 

 as they had announced their intention of remaining away a 

 couple of days aud had provisioned themselves accordingly; 

 but; as Roy and the guide had developed such exlraordinary 

 appetites that Glen had, as a matter of se!t-defense and 

 vomitory protection to consume his share, which resulted in 

 a complete annihilation of the commissariat attached to the 

 expedition, and a speedy retracing of their steps was a matter 

 I of course. Supplies for two days were exliausted at one 



