PIONEERING 
of the cross-bars. Traveling was slow, and the 
dogs became demons; at one time, sullen and 
stubborn ; then wildly excited and savage ; and 
in our handling of them I fear we became 
fiendlike ourselves. Frequently we would 
have to lift them bodily from the pits of snow, 
and snow^-filled fissures they had fallen into, 
and I am now sorry to say that we did not do 
it gently. The dogs, feehng the additional 
strain, refused to make the slightest effort 
when spoken to or touched with the whip, and 
to break them of this stubbornness, and to pre- 
vent further trouble, I took the leader or king 
dog of one team and, in the presence of the 
rest of the pack, I clubbed him severely. The 
dogs realized what was required of them, and 
that I would exact it of them in spite of what 
they would do, and they became submissive 
and pulled wilhngly, myself and the Esquimos 
doing our share at the upstanders. 
We got over the heavy floe-ice, to find our- 
selves confronted with jagged, rough ice, 
where we had to pickax our way. In one 
place we came to pressure-ridges separated by 
a deep gulch of very rough and uneven ice, 
in crossing which it took two men to manage 
97 
