The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-02-03
DOGS OF THE KLONDIKERS.
THE WAYS or THE 4NIMALS ON
THE ARCTIC TRAIL.

Teams-Dogs That Have Seen Bette,
Days-The Introduction of Indian
Dogs to CivIllzatIon-Feedin and
Driving the Dogs.
Up in the gold country the dog is an
ly dog. There he is dog anti horse
combined. Here he is tolerated. There
he is priced about the same way that
man values his right arm. He is low
ed and appreciated and fought for, but
sometimes he gets whipped. This is a
necessary part of the discipline, as any
member of the Yukon order Of Pioneers
will tell you. Checharkos-neW-co
say it is uncalled for, but when they
stay longer in the country and come to
have dogs of their own they whip them,
of course not brutally, of necessity, but
they touch them up rather briskly some
times with a birch sprout or a raWhide
quirt. You cannot make it clear TO the
team that if they do not get through to
Co. Wards camp or to Forty Mile, or
wherever the destination is, before night
there will be no supper for either dogs
or driver. They do not reason exactly
on this line, and so it seems that it is
only with an occasional reminder with
the birch that an understanding Is ar
rived at.
We used to have two Indian dogs that
howled at nights. One was named Coy
ote and the other Jim, although when
we came to know Jim more intimately
we mostly called him Woodenhead. Out
of a team of seven dogs he was the only
disappointing one We bought him and
Coyote of some Pelly River Indians
and when we first took them in charge
and hitched them up they were as wild
as Texas bronchos. They stampeded
and ran away. The stringy rawhide
Indian harness was not sufficient to hold
them Coyote jumped through his col
lar and Jim backed out of his, and the
moosehide thongs around their necks
were all that saved them to us.
The first day that we owned them was
full of exciting incidents. They had the
wolf nature through and through
Whenever we passed near them they
bolted, or if that was impossible they
snapped at us, and they could not even
look our way without malevoent
snarl. And they fought each other.
With every stop, if they We're not full
ly occupied with something else they
improved the time by engaging in a
most confusing mix-up. What gave us
the most concern was the tangle they
got into in these encounters. When
Woodenhead would roll over about three
times, come UP through Coyotes traces,
back out of his collar and head the
other way in a frantic endeavor to es-
cape, things were in bad disorder. The
duty Of the moment was to unharness
them and start in fresh.
But it was in their bowling of nights |
that their wolf nature showed unmis- |
takably When we asked the old In
dams we bought them Of if they would |
run away and leave us he answered.
1.-TWO sleep, two muckamuck; they no |
run away" which was equivalent to
telling us to keep them tied for two
nights So, naturally and as anybody
else would, we kept them roped for
three. But even on the fourth night,
when they had had such a magnificent
filling UP on bacon and rice as they
never experienced before and then were /
free to sleep on a comfortable bed of
spruce foliage or to wander at will
even they how1ed. They howled in all
sorts of ways. Sometimes it sounded
as If they were fighting, only there
might have been a half a dozen dogs
instead of two, from the noise they
made. Sometimes they really were
fighting, but we learned that their
clamor sounded more sanguinary when
there was no bloodshed.
We were making a journey then in
the middle of the northern winter
Sometimes the weather was at~Zero,
sometimes forty below; either way we
were pretty well seasoned to 1t and it
did not greatly matter, but we were
always tired when night came, of
course, and it was exasperating to be
kept awake by such unnecessary and
purely humorous propensity. The
growing would be followed sometimes
by wall so full of anguish as to i'm
pei us to set right up in bed and hold
our hands over our ears.
II can't stand that, said my partner
James as he drew himself out of his
sleeping bag in the midst Of one Of
Coyotes most dismal efforts,
''It is awful" I said, "but I don't
know any way to help it,"
II don't know, either said James
YEARLY, "but I think I've got it figured
out what those dogs want. I'm going
to experiment with 'em, anyway"
Slipping on his moccasins he went out
and applied the birch sprout with an
energy that came from a desire to get
through quickly an back to bed. The
result was encouraging, although the
irst trial did not work a complete cure.
The next night they began bowling in
i desultory way feeling their way at |
first but rapidly gaining in confidence
md dolefulness. James went out and I
1sed the remedy again and after that
We were rarely disturbed. t
The wheel dog of the team was a c
that we called lows, G
lows, this being short for Towser. I c
hing if his past could be known it q
would reveal that he was once owned by +
family back in the States by whom o
as he was a dog of dignity and char
Lcter-he was held in much esteem d
lis whole bearing proclaimed that his t
ormer owners were considerate and f
humane people who had not compelled a
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