The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-01-14
DOGS in THE KLONDIKE
ANIMALS THAT HAVE SEEN BETTER
DAYS BECOME BEASTS or BURDEN.
They Are Not Only Indian Dogs
Which Act as Horses An the Yukon
-Characteristics Displayed

dog. There he is a dog and horse COM
bined. Here he is tolerated. There he is
priced about the same way that a man
values his right arm. He is loved and APP
preciated and fought for but sometimes ne
gets whipped. This is a necessary part OF
the discipline, as any member of the Yukon
Order of Pioneers will tell you. Cnechar-
kos-newcomers-say il 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 brutality. of necessity,
but they touch them up rather briskly
sometimes with a birch sprout or a raw
hide quirt. You cannot make II clear TO
the team that IL they do not get through 20
Colonel 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 IL seems that il Is only
with an occasional reminder with the birch
that an understanding is arrived at
We used TO have two Indian dogs that
howled at nights. One was named Coyote
and the other Jim. although when we came
to know Jim more intimately we most
ly called him Woodenhead. Out OF team
OF seven dogs he was the only disappoint-
ing one. We bought him and Coyote OF
some Pelly river Indians and when we first
took them I'm 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
collar 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. When
ever we passed near them they bolted.
or If that was impossible they snapped at
US. and they could not even look our way
without a malevolent snarl. And they fought
each other. With every stop, IL they were
not fully occupied with something else,
they improved the time by engaging In a
most confusing mix-up. What gave US
most concern was the tangle they got
into in these encounters. When Wooden
head would roll over about three times.
come up through Coyotes traces. back out
OF his collar and finally head the other
way In a frantic endeavor 10 escape. things
were in bad disorder. The duty OF the
in fresh. Coyote who was the leader OF the
team. always whipped, but Woodenhead
never seemed to remember It until the
next stop. Anyway as he worked just be-
hind Coyote the temptation was too strong
to be resisted. He could get in two or three
good snaps before his enemy could turn
around.
HowLED AT NIGHT.
-
their wolf nature showed Enthusiastically.
When we asked the old Indian 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 10 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 comfortable bed OF
spruce foliage or to wander at wfll-even
then they howled They howled I'm all sorts
of ways Sometimes IL sounded as II they
were fighting, only that there might have
been 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 I'm the
middle of the northern winter. Sometimes
the weather was at zero, sometimes forty
below: either way we were pretty well sea-
soped to it and il did not greatly matter.
but we were always tired when night came.
of course, and IL was exasperating TO be
kept awake by such unnecessary and pure
ly humorous propensity. The growing and
snarling would be followed sometimes by
wall so full of anguish as to impel US &c sit
right up in bed and hold our hands over our
ears.
81 can't stand that said my partner
James. as he drew himself out Of his sleep
ing-bag In the midst Of one OF Coyotes
most dismal efforts.
.'It is awful" / said, ''but 1 don't know
any way TO help IT,"
.I don't know, either" said James wear
lily, 'but 1 think I've got it figured out
what those dogs want. I'm going 10 ex-
pertinent with 'em anyway"
Slipping on his moccasins he went out
and applied the birch spreut with an en-
ergy tndt came lIOu a NeriS ~ 49,
through quickly and back 10 bed. The re-
suit was encouraging, although the first
trial did not work a complete cure. The
next night they began bowling In a desui-
tory way, feeling their way at first but
rapidly gaining I'm confidence and doieful-
ness. James went out and used the remedy
again and after that we were rarely dis
turbed.
MISFORTUNE OF TOwSER-
The wheel dog OF the team was a black
that we called Tows, this
being short for Towser. I think If his past
could be known IT would reveal that he was
once owned by family back in the States.
by whom-as he was a dog OF dignity and
was held I'm much esteem
His whole bearing proclaimed that bis for
mer owners were considerable and humane
people who had not compelled him TO pull
a sled. 1t was an unhappy day for Towser
when he was bought or kidnapped BY q
Klondiker.
After he was once hitched up and on the
trail Towser was a willing worker. but the
thing that he most disliked was 80 start
out OF a morning and he invented a scheme
of his own in the attempt 10 evade 1t. We
nearly always stopped at old camp