Hopkinsville Kentuckian., 1890-03-04

Wnen VIC relcleu tne Rapids, ana lOunl
huge cairn OF fish put up by tn,
Eskimo. This we bought, and CAV,
our poor polar puppies most roya
feed. The thermometer had been a!
low as minus forty degrees. We hat
travelled nearly two hundred miles
and the intervals OF feeding had been
for three times, about a wecls apart
yet not single dog OF tho nineteen In
my sledge had succumbed, although
each one had dragged over double his
own weight through it all. Such O
trip would have killed. every dog ol
any other breed but these from this
part of Eskimo land. while white men
pulling such n sledge with such
a load would have starved before they
had made one-third OF the way. Little
enough do we know about winter
travel, in comparison with the northern
natives. In as cunning q way as one
could devise they cover the bottom OF
their broad sledge runners with ice
which makes 1t so slippery that dog
can pull four or five times his own
weight on a sledge on the best snow;
without this ice he probably could not
pull ,one-quarter as much. One who
has not soen this great aid to sledging
can not imagine what help it is; and
when / read OF the many Arctic sledge-
trips by those who know nothing OF 1t
my admiration fop their doing so we'll
under such difficulties as many OF them
have had. is fully equal to my pity that
they did not know how to wipe half or
two-thirds their labors away. 1t is an
intricate AMI delicate affair, known
only to perfection among the Eskimo.
We left the kind Eskimo on BaciS's
river December II, having bean Joined
by my other two sledges, From now
on. the Thermometer sank to coo
65o and once go, and tho gentlest
zephyrs cut like razors. We had sup
posed we would make twenty or thirty
miles day on the level ic, OF the
river and bo hon, by Nav Years. But
instead OF being better sledgi 1t was
much worse than on the rolling land,
and we seldom mlde over five or six
miles n day. So at last we left the
river and started straightaway across
the hills.
On the third Of January it was
seventy-one bolow zero-one hundred
and three degrees below frceZing-the
coolest weather on the trip and tho
coolest ever endured by white men
travelling. for that day we moved camp
ten or twelve miles further on. Our
fish were now rapidly disappearing.
and coupled with the intense cold and
hard work our poor dogs wore faring
badly. At the time we LETT the rivcr
we had lost one fin3 dog. We wero
stripped OF all but nlncte IN whoa We
reached Hudsoa's Bay. Worst OF all
our fatty fool was entirely gone.
With goodly amount OF this
person or an animal can re-
s;st bitter cold; but tho lean and
blue reindeer meat gave but little
sustenance to the poor brutes doing
such hard work In such severe weather.
There was none too much TO give them,
either. so short were tho days--but
two or three hours long which our
Eskimo could hunt them. All this told
terribly. Hardly day past that we
did not lose dog or two.
They were through all this horrible
time perfect respectors OF their human
allies, and the little children used to
go among them and play with them by
pelting them over the back with their
toy whips; and yet the sam, dogs were
and should one OF tn ,m die
his comrades would eat him. notice
this particularly as some sensational
writer's have tried to make their readers
believe that the Eskimo dogs are liable
TO become dangerous fellows even TO u
built man, when simply
hungry, ana to be worse than wild |
beasts when ravenous. II Is true that |
so wild are they for fool after long de-
privation that their actions might be
taken by people with timorous natures
for intentions TO devour person; but |
any onslaught OF Eskimo dogs is un-
known among the northern natives
where | traveled.-It was pitiable in
the extreme to see their sufferings
Is they so devotolly helped us
slong. many OF them up to the
very minute they had to be taken from
h, hat md uhau1Ann1 M thn