E)EC ^, Tg02.| 
the fur coinpanies. The hulk of sledge transport was 
always supplied by the mongrel, and mixed breeds, 
With ilo distinctive type prfedommaiit. Mostly they 
Were of the ordinary Indian kind, very wolfish irt ap- 
pearance, with sharp muzzles, pricked ears, and straight 
Wiry hair. They rati the galnut of color, though a kind 
of blufe-gray ivith black spots was very comttiort, artd 
Accompanied a rather bad teilaper. In all dogs weight 
was. of course, essential, an animal under severity 
pounds being too light for freight traffic. 
Owing to the exigencies of its service, passenger 
transport b}' dogs reached its highest development 
through the Hudson's Bay Company, that great char- 
tered corporation which for so long a period governed 
as well as commercially exploited the northern quarter 
'if this continent. Successful supervision of its scat- 
tered forts and trading posts necessitated communica- 
tion during the winter months. With frozen rivers 
and lakes, and the general lack of roads and trails, the 
dog-train was the only method of travel. Then, too, 
its hunters often required rapid transport, and once 
every winter the "packet" started from Fort Garry 
on its long journey northward, carrying the mail to 
the isolated posts, to stop finally at a lonely station 
within the Arctic circle. 
At its best the passenger train was composed of four 
dogs, the word "train'' applying in the north only to 
the dogs. They were attached to the usual tobog- 
fan-shaped sledge, covered with skins or heavy can- 
vas, and so stiffened by bows and a bade as to rgsemble 
."a heeiiess shoe; the bottom projecting behind the seat 
■Bufhciently to give space for baggage, or afford the 
FOREST AND ^ STREAM. 
at last, a mere speck against the blue. It was a picture 
of human life — the advent, the brief passing, the speedy 
disappearance; and like the going down of a ship upon 
the sea, it magnified for the onlooker the feeling of 
infinite solitude. 
It was in the night camp that the sledge dog agaui 
came to his oWn. The day Was for him only a long- 
drawh misery, relieved by the few fugitive joys of his 
resting spfells. Loosed from the cariole, his old in- 
sthtcts, teillpered by cirdufflstances, reasserted them- 
selves. Like the retired green grocer who builds a 
rockery hi hi.s backyard in the effoi t to I'eturu to na- 
ture, he essayed to assert his fVeedom by vocal chal- 
lenges to his fellows, wanderings about the camp, and 
suspicious sniffings of the sttow, as if game were some- 
where concealed. This until the fire burned. Then 
came a sudden metamorphosis. For with the blaze 
the sledge-dog became statuesque and intently expec- 
tant, sitting rigidly upon his haunches, his eyes fast- 
ened upon the row of frozen fish thawing before the 
coals, and consumed by a fierce hunger. For supper 
was for him the only meal of the day. Each dog re- 
ceived two fish — about seven pounds — as his ration. 
There were no pleasures of deglutition. Like its din- 
ners, wliich Thackeray described, when men met only 
to eat, the meal was served in a single course. A few 
gulps and swallowings, a wistful sniff or two, atid the 
sledge-dog curled down upon the snow as, in beating 
down his nest, his wild ancestor had curled in the 
long grasses of the prairie. As the hours wore on, 
and the stillness and cold of the northern night set- 
tled ovef him, he sought his master's blankets, edging 
B07 
A DOG TEAM RESTING. 
From "Hunting in Many Lands.' 
driver standing room when weary from running. Many 
"I these sledges, or carioles, were highly decorated 
wilh paint and pigments, and the interior was always 
made comfortable with robes and blankets. 
The method of harnessing dogs differed somewhat 
with locality^ the Eskimo running their dogs abreast, 
^md other natives attaching them by separate lines into 
a band or pack. Rut throughout the great interior 
dogs were driven tandem, and harnessed between two 
long traces with a space of a foot or more between 
them. A round collar of soft leather fitted closely to 
the shoulders, and buckled on either side to the traces, 
which were supported by a band passing over the back. 
Both this band and the collar were made the subject 
of a good deal of decoration, being often hung with 
tiny bells, or ornamented with ribbons or fox tails, 
A train of good dogs thus gaudily appareled, with a 
blue cariole, from the back of which a fringe of red 
blanket appeared, and a driver with tasseled fur cap, 
dark blue capole, a red sash, beaded leggings and moc- 
casins, contributed greatly to the warmth and color 
of the landscape. 
In passenger travel the driver usually ran alongside 
the sledge, for it seldom happened that the passenger 
was also driver. Onlj'^ the most thoroughly trained 
dogs could be driven from the cariole; attempt to do 
so with the ordinary train generally ending in an in- 
extricable tangle, in which the leader took the place 
of the ■'■'wheel" dog. With a driver to keep the line 
straight, and ready to meet any deviation with whin 
and imprecation, progress was easy enough. 
The rate of travel on a fair track, or on tlie snow 
crust, was from five to six miles an hour, though mucli 
better time was frequently made. A "company's" offi- 
cer told the writer that he once made fifty-five miles 
without stopping in seven and a half hours, his passen- 
ger being a lady with her trunk, robes and day's pro- 
visions. And he said that he had known dogs to trot 
twelve miles an hour without breaking. But such speed 
is exceptional. 
In traveling start was usually made at three or four 
o'clock in the morning, with a stop between seven and 
eight for breakfast and another at noon, the day's 
Journey ending between four and five o'clock in the 
evening. The best progress was made, however, with a 
half hours rest every four hours, during which the 
dogs were taken from the harness and allowed to roll 
in the snow, a comparatively easy matter; every dog- 
being trained to come to his own collar when called 
up. Few spectacles appealed more strongly to the 
imagination than that of a dog train passing low down 
ypQTi the horizon across the snowy plaiti^ to 4isappear 
closer and closer until driver and dogs became an in- 
distinguishable heap. At times some grizzled leader, 
answering the howl of a vagrant wolf, roused the 
camp by his hoarse baritone. But in the main only 
the imprecation of the driver, as he resented the too 
close encroachment of the dogs, broke the long silence. 
In freight hauling much the same routine of travel 
was followed. The vehicle was, of course, a much 
simpler affair, the freight sledge being the usual tobog- 
gan, save in the coast region, where tt low, very flat 
runner was not infrequent. In each cords passed along 
the edges by which the loads could be tied, or, rather, 
laced down; the closer the weight lay to the snow the 
easier being the labor of both dogs and driver. Usual- 
ly the latter maintained the equilibrium of the load, 
and prevented overturn by a cord attached to the 
rear of the sledge. 
A good dog on a beaten track could haul about one 
hundred and fifty pounds, and for a short distance 
might do even more. On a journey of, say four or 
five days, four hundred pounds for a train of four 
dogs, with fish at the rate of seven pounds per day 
for each dog, kettles, ax, blankets, etc., was consid- 
ered a fair load. With this a train could travel on the 
snow crust or hard road, at a rate of four miles an 
hour. In soft and deep snow, however, the rate was 
scarcely more than half that, the drivers having first 
to walk ahead and beat down a path with snowshoes in 
which the dogs could follow. As the loaded sledge 
sank deeper than the track thus made, it was indis- 
pensable to progress that the dogs got a foothold upon 
the ground. 
Moreover, continued travel in deep snow was apt 
to make the dog's legs sore above the ankle, and to 
diminish his speed and endurance. In the spring time 
the brittle snow crust cut both the dog's feet and the 
driver's moccasins; a disablement guarded against in 
the case of the former by putting him in slioes. These 
were merely pieces of soft leather or cloth sectired 
about the ankle with a thong, but which for the time 
constituted an eft'ective protection. 
Generally speaking, however heavy the pull and 
difficult in trail, the dogs performed their task with a 
degree of equanimity, not to say resignation, which, 
considering its arduous and repugnant nature, was 
much to their credit. There was very little fighting, 
and that little generally among newly made-up trains, 
when the places of tlie dogs were changed, or when 
the leader engaged in a quarrel. Dog nature resem- 
bles human nature, in that it is suspicious of strangers, 
and resents a change of position which involves harder 
labor or reduction in rank. Many dogs, too^ will not 
work well except in the lead, a trait not wholly canine. 
Once acknowledged, all sledge-dogs respect the leader, 
follow him and fight for him, even out of harness. 
Some dogs are, however, naturally very stubborn, and 
seem never to be reconciled to their task. Very few 
can be trained to the sledge without severe beatings. 
As was inevitable with a people given to nicknames, 
dog nomenclature throughout the north, and especially 
among the half-breeds, formed an extensive vocabu- 
lary. In the early days the dog was named after his 
owner, after personal traits, natural objects, or some 
battle or adventure in which he bad been conspicuous. 
But following the advent of the fur traders and the 
introduction of liquors, names for a time were those 
of various brands of drinkables. Of these whiskey, 
brandy and coffee attained the greatest popularity, and 
for many years it seemed safe to say that of every 
, train two dogs at least bore one or the other of these 
labels. With the driver shrieking for whiskey and 
brandy, and the passenger calling for coffee, the cup 
of creature comfort at that time throughout the North 
would seem to have been full. As no custom hardens 
without a reason, it may be assumed that these names 
were chosen by men constantly exposed to cold and 
storm, as most suggestive of warmth and good cheer. 
With the advance of civilization, however, taste in this 
direction changed, and the sledge-dog took the names 
of great statesmen and cities — Bismar9k, Gladstone, 
London, etc., and with the Scotch fur traders that of 
national heroes, Bruce, Wallace and the "Scots wha hae." 
But whether named or not, the half-breed driver 
never lacked appelations with which to urge on his 
train. He was never at a loss for invective or phrases 
descriptive of his opinion of the defects of particular 
dogs. And no dog ever entertained a doubt as to who 
was meant when^ they were applied. The profanity 
of the half-breed driver was delivered with a shot-like 
precision which never missed its mark, or failed to 
awaken renewed effort; and his general appeal to the. 
train to "iust see if they couldn't do a little better," 
with marginal references to their ancestry, had all the 
effect of the lash. 
It was not until the year 1880 that the decline of dog- 
sledging became pronounced. It is true that in the 
middle region south of the fiftieth parallel, it had, 
previous to that date, suffered some eclipse. The 
opening of roads and trails, and tlie gradual settle- 
ment uf the country, had brought the horse increas- 
ingly into use in winter travel. By the latter year the 
process was being repeated in the Canadian North- 
west, and especially in the great plains south of the 
Saskatchewan. The settlement of tlie Indian tribes 
on reservations tended further to diininish the work 
of the dog, by circumscribing the wanderings of the 
Indian hunters. 
In the north, however, the dog-sledge still held its 
own. But gradually, even there the whistle of the 
steamboat was heard upon rivers which, since time 
began, had borne only the birch bark canoe and the 
macinac boat. Little settlements sprang up here^ and 
there, roads and trails were opened to connect them, 
and in winter the horse sled took the place of that 
drawn by the dog. Greatest blow of all was the discov- 
ery of the Alaskan gold fields, and the consequent 
opening of great arteries of travel to the north. In 
the eastern coast region the dog-sledge remains, and 
probably will remain, the ordinary means of winter 
transport. But in the great central area and the 
western coast the horse vehicle has largely taken its 
place. Only in the Mackenzie and English River dis- 
tricts, and 'in Alberta, is the dog still in general use. 
It was a picturesque phase of aboriginal and pioneer 
life that is thus passing away. There was no more 
novel and animated spectacle than that of the dog 
trains, with their gaily-colored carioles, tinkling bells 
and smartly dressed drivers gathered tn the fort yards 
for departure. It was a moment of much cheer, of 
laughing and gesticulation, of handshaking and wishing 
of hon voyage. And when Pierre and Baptiste and 
Louison set sail with their little craft out upon the 
limitless expanse of snow, what a shouting of adieus! 
On they went, little lines of light and motion, crossed 
by other lines going east, west, north, south, bearing 
the travel and commerce of a fourth of a continent, 
and bringing cheer to the hearts of men. But the 
utilitarian has ever waged war with the picturesque; 
and the dog-sledge with which the coureurs des hois 
penetrated the great region west and north of Lake 
Superior and opened it to settlement, _ is disappear- 
ing in the struggle. The dog has had his day. 
H. M. Robinson. 
Long Island Dwcks. 
Bavport. L. I., Dec. 20.— The past week since the thaw 
set in has been better for gunning than at any time before 
this season. Redheads are in the bay in large numbers. 
Brant and geese have also been seen, though as yet I 
have not heard of anyone getting either. The quail 
shooting has been very good for so late in the season, 
which closes here the first day of January. Mr G. Still, 
out one day last week, got 21 quail, 2 partridges, 2 rabbits. 
Guide Will Brown on Thursday got 51 broadbills, 3 red- 
heads, 3 coots. On Saturday he had out Mr. Such, of 
Perth Amboy; the weather was not very favorable, and 
they only got 17 broadbills and 4 redheads. 
Guide Lc Roy Still was away on his sloop two days 
and returned Saturday with 85 ducks, including 16 red- 
heads, most of which he got point shooting, the ducks 
coming right inshore and stooling good. Rabbit shoot- 
ing has been quite good; Will Bason, of Sayville, on 
Monday last got 17 and Mr. Sharp 12. Will Clock and 
party, of Islip, on Monday last got six fine wild geese. 
Henry Stokes. 
W. T. WoodwLird, a La Crosse attorney, has drafted a 
bill, which lie will present to the Wisconsin Legislature 
next winter, the purpose of which is to prevent the tell - 
ing of "fish stories." The bill provides that every fisher- 
in,Hn nni=:t, nnder penalty of fine, register the weight of 
every fish taken exceeding one pound in weight. It pro- 
vides for the appointment of a State officer, with county 
deputies, with whom register shall be made, and whose 
duty it shall be io see tliat th« law i-s fati-forQedv 
1 
