St. Paul daily globe., 1893-05-22
TALK OF POLAR LIFE.
Capt. Brown, Of the Regular
Army. Gives an Inter-
esting Story
OF His Life and Experiences
Among the ESquimau
People.
Peculiar Traits Of the Sledge
Dogs Of That Polar
Populace.
Animals Utterly Indispensa-
BILE to the Snow Dome
DWellers.

Wnere ne resides, some months ago,
bringing with him an EsquimauX boy.
which he intends to raise to see what
can be made of him. The captain
served through the War of the Rebellion,
and received wound in the head which
has always caused considerable pain.
He is now taking life leisureIy, and
travelling much over the United States.
He arrived in St.Paul last week, putting
up at the Ryan, and, as he is an Intimate
acquaintance of Col. Barber, of the De-
partment of Dakota, with whom he
served during a considerable part of
the war, he will remain in the city some
weeks.
lie was seen at the Ryan, and gave to
the GLOBE this very Interesting account
of ESquimauX dogs:
During the years of 1912 we had be-
tween sixty and seventy dogs for sledge
work at our winter camp; and for all
they were rated as Of the best for the
purpose in Arctic Alaska, they were q
mongrel set -gaunt, hungry-loOking,
wolfiSh, thieying bruteS; always ready
for free fight when not too busy de-
VOurlng any portion of ones skin cloth
is nothing that any other living animal
can masticate that CamOogens (Esqui-
mau fur dog won't make an effort at.
They are dreadfully abused and neg
lected by their owners; staked out in
the coolest of the winter to lie on the
ice or snow with no shelter, and in the
summer tied in the same manner to be
tortured with the puncturingS OF tens or
millions of mosquitoes. Our dogs were
rather better cared for and better fed
than others i'll our district, and we
found them very useful.
From six to ten dogs, and often a
greater number, constitute a sledge
train, hitched tandem, or at times the
line is shortened by breaking the tan
dem, hltching part OF them to the
sides of the sledge.
An ordinary load for six dogs would
be about five or six hundred pounds,
and with that they will ply over the ice
or snow at break-neck rate, and seem
never so happy as when on the run
yelping and bowling like pack Of
wolves, to which most of them are cous-
ins, if not more closely related.
An Eskimo man does anything in haste
but eat; and i'll the far north, where it is
winter from ten to eleven months of the
year, and his food most of the time
frozen hard as flint, he is unable to eat
fast enough
To Produce Dyspepsia.
However, that is depression from the
dogs. Twenty miles day is the usual
short journey for the deliberate Eskimo,
though with white men much longer
drives are made. SiXty-fiVe and seventy
five miles are not unusual drives, and l
In n lifrht sic
with three good dogs and a load of over
a hundred pounds, claim that he made
for five days ninety miles per day, the
last 120 miles being on the ice down the
Stekine river to a settlement near Fort
Wrangel.
Lieut.. De Long, of the Jeanette,
bought his dogs at st. Michapls. be-
tween 300 and 400 miles to the south of
our camp, and, | imagine, got very good
animals. His two dog drivers were also
taken from there.
Hydrophobia is the bane of the dog in
that country, and it takes them off in
short order OF all the dogs we had for
winter work less than half a dozen were
alive by the 1st of May.
| have seen teams Of from six to ten
dogs come into camp red-eyed, frothing
at the mouth, and, whilst pulling the
sledge, doing all in their power to get
at and tear each other to pieces, and,
strange to say, making no effort to bite
their drivers, women or children. l
have never known dogs to die Of rabies
during the short summers, either in
Southeastern or Northwestern Alaska,
and | have used many Of them in both
parts of the country, both
In Packing and Hauling
Native dogs take as naturally to pack
ing as hauling the sledge or bidarra
Skin boatl, and to one who has never
seen dog with loaded pannier on his
back it's quite astonishing. From twenty
to forty-five pounds, according to the
size of the dog, is fair load, and with
that they trot along over the ice or
snow or trudge through the tundra
(mOss) for The long day on ration of
dried fish that an ordinary house cat
would starVe to death on.
The women and children as a rule
have charge of the dogs, and educate
them for the sledge and pack. There is
little good feeling between master and
dog, except on the part of the dog, which
is ever fawning and knows only his
master, who is more likely to club and
kick than caresS him.
Two OF my Sledge women were bitten
last winter, but not so badly as to more
than bruiSe their limbs through heavy
seaskin pantaloOns. Neither of them
took hydrophobia, though the dogs that
had bitten them died of it in a day or so
after. have never known dog to bite
an Eskimo man, woman or child except
when in fit Of rabies. 1t is strange
that dogs die of hydrophobia in those
high latitudes in midWinter, but such is
the case.
Reindeer are being brought over to
Alaska from Siberia, where they are
and in general use. and
will soon replace the dog and prove a
great blessing TO the Eskimo. They
are good workers. give rich milk, their
flesh is tirst-class meat, and their skins |
are In general use, both in Alaska and |
for clothing, which is light and |
warm.
Many times during my jOurneyings |
the Alaskans in the iAterlor, on the |
Arctic slope, have asked me
To Instruct Them
how to teach caribou american rein |
teer) to work; but as l was traveller L /
could not give them my time. though | |
know they can be trained, as a fur /
trader with whom l once V0yaged down |
The Deaso river. on the Arctic slope, in
formed me that he had one at his trad
ng post perfectly domesticated ana
nice pet. There are herds on herds of
hem, as we'll as elkS and moose, in the
country between the Dease river and
he headwaters of the Yukon. My
party killed them from time to time
when we wanted meat, ana they did
eem unusually wild.
Dogs, when making long Journeys,
must haul their provisions with them,
md, even with the starvation ration
Illowed them, its weight and bulk cuts
Iuite IL figure in loading sledge. With
lie reindeer longer Journeys can be
made and larger loads taken, as there is
hardly scope of country within the
limits of this continent where at some
ime during days drive grass or moss
S not to be fonnd, either Of which is
oOd for the reindeer.
A few dogs, imagine, must alwa,
e kept Tor bear and seai-hunting pur-
o5es, and in time they will be taught
0 he'd the deer, as they do III Siberia
nd Lapland.
Our coast station is at Galorine bay,