The weekly north Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1857-1867, 1867-02-13
McGREGOR, IOWA, WEDNESDAY, FEB. l3, 1867

67.
of nearly half mile. A rude estimate
this monster, made on the spot, gave m
in cubical contents, about twenty-seve
thousand millions of feet, and in weirl
something like two thousand millions {
tons. l leave the reader to calculate fc
himself its equivalent in dollars and cent.
were it transported to the regions of ic,
creams and sherry cobblers, and how muc
OF it would be required to pay off the ns
tional debt, and how much more than ha
a century it would Withstand the attack
of the whole civilized world upon it, 70
all those uses to which luxury loving ma,
puts the skimmings Of the Boston ponds.
| DOG TEAMS.
The doctors account of his dog team
and the method of managing these brute.
is very entertaining. He says:
II have superb turnout, twelve dog
and fine sledge. The animals are Il
most excellent condition, every one of then
strong and healthy; and they are yer,
fleet. They whirl my Greenland sledg
over the ice with q celerity not calculated
for weak nerves, have actually ridder
behind them over six measured miles il
% minutes and without stopping to blow
the team, have returned over the track ir
80. Sontag and had a race, and beat
him by four minutes. l should like to
have some of my friends of Saratoga and
Point Breeze up here, to show them a new
style of speeding animals. Our racers do
not require any blanketing after the heats,
nor sponging either. We harness them
each with single trace, and these traces
are of length to suit the fancy of the
driver-the longer the better, for they are
then not so easily tangled, the draft
of the outside dogs is more direct, and, il
the team comes upon thin ice, and breaks
through, your chances of escape from i'm
mersion are in proportion to their distance
from you. The traces are all of the same
length, and hence the dogs run side by
side, and, when properly handled, their
heads are in line. My traces arc so meas
ured that the shoulders of the dogs are just
twenty feet from the forward part of the
runners.
''The team is guided solely by the whip
and voice. The strongest dogs are placed
on the outside, and the whole team is
swayed to right and left according as the
whip falls on the snow to the one side or
the other, or as it touches the leading dogs,
as it is shure to do it they do not obey the
gentle hint with sufficient alacrity. The
voice aids the whip, but in all emergencies
the whip is the only real reliance. Your
control over the team is exactly in proper
ton to your skill in the use of it. The
lash is about four feet longer than the ira
ces, and is tipped with cracker of hard
sinew, with which skilful driver can draw
bloodif so inclined; and can touch either one
of his animals on any particular spot that
may suit his purpose. Jensen having
had to-day q young refractory dog
in the team, and, having had his patience
quite exhausted, he resolved upon extreme
measures. you see dat beast?' said he.
4 takes piece out of his ear; and sure
enough crack went the whip, the hard sim
ew wound round the tip Of the ear and
shipped it off as nicely as with knife.
1.-THE long lash, which is but thin, ta-
perng strip of raw seal-hide, is swung with
a whip-stock only two feet and half long.
It is very light and is consequently hard to
handle. The peculiar turn of the wrist
assos.~.y 10 .Ss 10 .uaiSl 900 =. -. >z~..:....
ton is most difficult undertaking. 1t re-
quires long and patient practice. l have
and my perseverance has been
rewarded; and if I am obliged to turn dri-
yer on emergency, feel equal to the task !;
but fervently hope than the emergency
may not arise which requires me to exhibit
my skill.
at is the very hardest kind of hard work
That merciless lash must be going contin-
ually; vnd it must be merciless or it is of
no avail. The dogs are quick to detect the
least weakness of the driver, and measure
him on the instant. If not thoroughly
convinced that the soundness of their skins
is quite at his mercy, they 60 where they
please. If they see fox crossing the ice,
or come upon bear track, or wind a seal
or sight bird, away they dash over snow
drifts and hummocks, pricking up their
short cars and curling up their long, bushy
tails for wild, wolfish race after the game
If the whip-lash goes out with fierce snap.
the ears and tails drop, and they 20 on
about their proper business; but woe be
unto you if they get the control. have
seen my own driver only to-day sorely put
to his metal, and not until he had brought
yell of pain from almost every dog in the
team did he conquer their obstinacy. They
were running after fox, and were taking
US toward what appeared to be unsafe ice.
The wind was blowing hard, and the lash
was sometimes driven back into the driver S
face, hence the difficulty. The whip, how
ever, finally brought them to reason, and
IN full view of the game, and within few
yards of the treacherous icc, they first got
into limping trot and then stopped most
unwillingly. OF course this made them
very cross, and general fight-ferce and
angry-now followed, which was not quie-
ted until the driver had sailed in among
them and knocked them to right and left
with his hard whip-stock."
THE MID-WINTER NIGHT.
In the very heart of the Arctic winter,
the days passed gloomily enough. The
doctor dwells at length upon the long mid
winter night:
"As November approaches its close, the
last glimmer Of twilight disappeared. The
stars shone at all hours with equal brillian-
cy. From summer which had no night
we had passed into winter which had no
day. through an autumn twilight. In this
strange ordering of nature there is some
thing awe-inspiring and unreal.
1--WE all know from our school-boy DAYS
that, at the poles Of the earth, there is but
one day and one night in the year, but,
when brought face to face with the reality,
it is hard to realize. And it is harder
still to get used to. If the constant SUM-
shine of the summer disturbed our life
long habits, the continual darkness of the
winter did more. In the one case the i'm
agination was excited by the ever present
light, inspiring action; in the other night
of months threw cloud over the intellect
and dwarfed the energies.
"To this prolonged darkness the moon