The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1889-04-06


feed our dogs again until the fourteenth OF
the month. This day we left the head of
a deep inlet and thought that by the time
another four days had passed we would be
at Dangerous Rapids at the mouth OF
Backs Great Fish river, where natives
catch fish and where we could therefore
replenish our supplies for our dogs without
using more of our precious reindeer meat.
Still we were travelling across a wholly un-
known country, and every thing was purely
conjecture.
The four days faded into FIVE, then six.
On the seventh my dog-driver, ToolOoah,
fed the dogs from the reindeer meat. |
had felt as if must have them fed before,
but fully eomprehended that he knew
the best and | must let him have his own
way about the poor beasts.
Then came another long stretch of six
DAYS. till November 2s, before the dogs
were again fed, and now only lightly.
Then came the third stretch without
food-an interval of seven days. which
ended on the fifth day of December when
We reached the Rapids, and found a huge
cairn of fish put up by the Eskimo. This
We bought, and gave our poor polar puppies
a most roval feed The thermometer had
been as low as minus forty degrees. We
had travelled nearly two hundred miles,
and the intervals of feeding had been for
three times, about a week apart-yet not
single dog of the nineteen in my sledse
had succumbed, although each one had
dragged over double his own weight through
+ it all. Such trip would have killed every
/ doc of any other breed but these from this
part Of Eskimo land, while white men
pulling such sledge with such a load
woald have starved before they had made
one.third Of the way Little enough do
We know about winter travel, in eompari-
son with the northern natives. In as Gun
ming a way as one could devise they cover
the bottom of their broad sledee raupers
with Ice which makes il 80 slippery that a
7 do. can pull four or Eve times his own
F weight on \ sledge on the best snow; with
cut this lee be probably could noi pull one
quarter as much One who has not seen
this great aid to sledging can net imagine
wha, help il Is and when ! read Of the
many Arctic sledge,rips by those who
know nothing of il my admiration for their
doing s., well under such difficulties n
p,soy Of them have bad Is fully equal TO
nv piiy t',at they did no, kuow how 10
wipe half OF two-ihiris their labors away.
Ii Il an intricate and delicate affair. known
only TO perfection among the Eskimo.
We icft the kind Eskimo on Backs
River December l., having been joined by
nv other two siedges. From now on the
thermometer sank to CO.'S and once
60. and the genslest Eephyrs Gu, ike
rar1rs. We had Supposed We would make
twenty ur thirty miles day on the level
ice Of the river and be home by New Years
Bas instead of being better sledsing It was
much worse than on the rolling land, aud
We seldom made over hve or SIX miles
day. - st last We left the rIvcr and
started straighi-away acruSs the hills
On the third Of January j, vas seventy
one below Ecro-one hundred and three
degrees below freezing coolest weather
oa the trip aud the coldcst ever endured
bY white men travelling, for that day We
u,evri camp ten OF twelve miles further
on Our hsh were now rapidly disappear
ing. and coupled with the intense cold and
bard work oar poor dogs were farIug badly
Az the time We lets the TiseT We had lost
one ane DO. We we're stripped Of all but
nineteen when We reached Hadsoas Bay
( Worst Of al our fatty food was entirely
gone. With a goolly amount of this
person or an animal can resls; bitter cold,
but the lean and blue reindeer meat gave
ba: lig,le sussctancr to the poor bFutcs
doing such hard wUrk in such severe
F weather There was none too much 10
give them. either. 50 short we're the days
but two or three hours long--ia which
cur Eskimo could hunt them. All ihIs
told terribly. Hardly day past that We
did not iosc a dog or two.
/ They we're through al this horrible time
perfect rrspectors Of their human allies,
and the h,tle children used TO 70 among
them and play With them By peliing them
over the hack with their toy whips. aud
E We; the same dogs were starving and should
one OF them die his comrades would eat
him. | nu,ice this particularly a some
sensational writers have tired TO make their
readers believe that the Eskimo dogs are
liable 10 become dangerous fellows even 70
s powerfully built man, when simply hun-
,ry, aud to be worse than Wild beasts when
rayenous. Ii Is true that 50 wild are they
for food after long deprivation that their
actions might be taken by people with
timorous natures for intentions to devour
person.; but any onslaught Of Eskimo dogs
i unknown among the northern natives
where | Travelled 1, was pitiabie IN the
extreme TO see their sufferings as they 50
deyotedly helped us ali AZ, many Of them
ND to the very minute they had TO be taken
from the harness aud abandoned on the
road. Our Eskimo hunters made heroic
efforts at hunting, but the Arctic day was
80 short aud reindeer aud musk-oxen so
scarce that in order to give the poor dogs
any We often had to reduce our own food
supply which We eheertully did.
As they dropped out along the way, we
harnessed ourselves in their places to the
sIedge traces, aud ii was only thus We were
not compelled To abandon important parts
Of our load.
About the middle of February, the
wolves began to trouble Us, and although
they killed four Of our nearly taaished
dogs at the very doors Of our snow houses,
we rather welcomed the sight of them as
we knew their presence Indicated our near
ness to the reindeer-hunting grounds OF
the Hudson Bay Eskimo, and that we
were therefore nearly home and might fall
: in with natives we knew at any time. In
fact, the latter part of February We saw a
: Kinnepetoo Eskimo, and from him got
help to reach our old home with our nine
teen dogs. all that was left of sixty, about
two-thirds of that loss being purely from
, starvation.
GONE.
Another man gone under His story.
a short one, is told every day. He had {