184 THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE KARLUK 
pole, split at one end; I would shake this over the 
dogs when we were on the march and the rattling 
of the loose ends would serve as a stimulus for them 
to buckle down to work. 
On one occasion the whole team broke away from 
sledge and started back over the trail. I was very 
much afraid that they might run all the way back 
to Wrangell Island, leaving us with the sledge 
half way to Siberia, so I took a pemmican tin and 
went through all the motions of opening it to feed 
them and then started to walk back towards them. 
I dared not run after them, for the more I ran the 
faster they would go. After I had walked back half 
a mile I got near enough to attract their attention. 
They pricked up their ears, looked around, saw 
the tins of pemmican and finally came back slowly 
towards me. When they got near enough I seized 
the rope. They evidently were afraid they were 
in for a licking, for they stayed on their good be¬ 
havior for several hours. 
One great trouble that we had with them was 
their habit of chewing their harness, though it was 
made of hemp canvas instead of sealskin to pre¬ 
vent that very thing. In the night they would 
free themselves in this way and we would have 
difficulty in catching them, for although they had 
collars we had no chains left. Food, clothing and 
sledge-lashings had to be kept away from the dogs 
