The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1892-03-16
BY DOG SLED.
TRAVELLING IN THE GREAT FUR
REGION OF THE NORTHWEST.
low Hudson Bay Dog Sled is Made
Human and Canine Endur-
ance-14O Miles in Forty
Eight Hours.


ticles on the Hudson Bay re-
gion. It is formed of two thin pieces
of oak or birch lashed together with
buckskin thongs and turned up high in
front. 1t is usually about nine feet in
length by sixteen inches wide. A leather
cord is run along the outer edges for
fastening whatever may be put upon the
sled. Varying numbers of dogs are
harnessed to such sleds, but the usual
number is four. Traces, collars, and
blackbands for the harness, and the dogs
are hitched one before the other. Very
often the collars are completed with sets
of sleigh bells, and sometimes the har-
ness is otherwise ornsmented with beads,
t.ssels, fringes or ribbons. The leader,
or foregoer, is always the best in the
team. The next dog to him is called
the steady dog, and the last is named
the steer dog. As rule, these faithful
animals are treated harshly, If not brutally.
It is a Hudson Bay axiom that no man who
cannot curse in three languages is Ht to
drive them. The three profanities are,
of course, English, French, and Indian,
though whoever has heard the Northwest
French knows that it ought to serve by
itself, as it is half.soled with Anglo.Saxon
oaths and heeled with Irdian obscen:ty.
The rule with whoever goes on a dog
sled journey is that the. driver, or mock.
passenger runs behind the dogs. The
main function of the sled is to carry the
dead weight, the burdens of tent covers,
blankets, food, and the like. The men
run along with or behind the dogs, on
snow.shoes, and when the dogs make bet.
ter time than horses are able to, and will
carry between 200 and 300 pounds over
daily distances of from twenty to thirty.
five miles, according to the condition OF
the ice or snow, and that many journey
of 1000 miles has been performed in this
way, and some of 1000 miles, the test
Of human endurance is as great as that
of canine grit.
Men travelling slight" with extra
sleds for the freight, and men on short
Journeys often ride in the sleds. which
in such cases are fitted up as "carioles"
for the purpose. I have heard an unau-
thenticated account, by Hudson Bay
man, of men who drove themselves, dis
ciplining refractory or lazy dogs by sim
ply pulling them in beside or over the
dashboard, and holding them down by
the neck while they thrashed them. A
story is told of q worthy bishop who
complained of the slow progress his sled
was making, and was told that it was
useless to complain, as the dogs would not
work unless they we're roundly and inces-
sanity cursed. After time the bishop
gave his driver absolution for the profan-
ity needed for the remainder of the jour
pey, and thenceforth sped over the snow
at a gallop, every stroke of the half
breeds long and cruel whip being sent
home with a volley of wicked words, en-
phasized at times with peltings with
sharp-edged bits of ice. Kane, the explor-
er, made an average of fifty-seven miles
day behind these shaggy little brutes.
Lilton and Cheadle, in their book, men
tion instances where the dogs made 140
miles in less than forty.eight hours, and
the Bishop of Rupert's Land told me he
had covered twenty miles in the fore.
noon and twenty in the afternoon of the
same day, without causing his dogs to
exhibit evidence of fatigue. The best
time is made on hard snow and ice, of
course, and when the conditions suit,
the drivers whip off their snow-shoes to
trot behind the dogs more easily. In
view of what they do, it is no wonder
that many of the Northern Indians, upon
first seeing horses, named them simply
.'big dog" But to me the performances
of the drivers are the more wonderful.
1t was q white youth, son of a factor,
who ran behind the bishops dogs in the
squirt of forty miles by daylight that ]
mention. The men who do such work
explain that the slope" of the dogs is
peculiarly suited to the dog.trot of p
human being.