THE START FOR HOME 
loaded with dogs, paraphernalia, and Esqui- 
mos, these three families were taken aboard. 
With them were several teams of dogs. 
The dogs aboard ship were the survivors of the 
pack that had been with us all through the 
campaign, and a number of litters of puppies 
that had been whelped since the spring season. 
Our dogs were well acquainted with each other 
and dog fights were infrequent and of little 
interest, but the arrival of the first dog of the 
new party was the signal for the grandest dog 
fight I have ever witnessed. I feel justified in 
using the language of the fairy Ariel, in 
Shakespeare's "Tempest": "Now is Hell 
empty, and all the devils are here." 
Backward and forward, the foredeck of the 
ship was a howling, snarling, biting, yelping, 
moving mass of fury, and it was a long round 
of fully ten or fifteen minutes before the two 
king dogs of the packs got together, and then 
began the battle for supremacy of the pack. 
It lasted for some time. It would have been 
useless to separate them. They would decide 
sooner or later, and it was better to have it 
over, even if one or both contestants w^ere 
killed. At length the fight was ended ; our old 
166 
