44 THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE KARLUK 
blamed for this, for though it is all right if you are 
used to it, the shifting ice can furnish the un¬ 
initiated with an unlimited number of surprises. 
In such times of danger they would not respond 
either to the voice or to the whip of the driver. 
Driving Eskimo dogs is a hard job at best, for 
they seem possessed of the spirit of Satan, himself, 
even the best of them. The North Greenland 
Eskimo harness their dogs to the sledge fan-wise, 
each dog having traces that fasten directly to the 
sledge itself, whereas the Alaskan Eskimo harness 
the dogs to a long rope, at intervals on either side. 
With both methods the dogs get the harness tangled 
again and again and then, out of the range of the 
whip, they will sit down and blink at the driver in 
a way calculated to make him feel like committing 
cruelty to animals. They will all of them chew the 
harness and free themselves if you give them half a 
chance. 
We fed the dogs on the Karluk on dried salmon 
which we obtained at Nome, together with rice and 
oatmeal and Indian meal, all cooked together. 
As long as we had steam on the main boiler we 
cooked the dog-food by letting the steam blow 
through a hose leading into a pork barrel filled with 
the ingredients. We always served the dogs with 
hot food—and it was quite good enough for a man 
to eat—and after the boiler was blown down we 
