Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1908-08-15
THE STRATEGY OF
| A CANINE FRIEND
DR.. VIM. Grenfell, Noted Lab.
rador Explorer, Narrates
an Interesting Case.
From the BOSTON rranscript.

From the Boston Transcript.
1t happened that none OF US knew the
right direction to follow to the village we
were heading for, and there were 20 miles
of rivers, thiclcts, marshes, and lakes.
My leading dog was the only member OF
the party who had ever been there be-
fore, and he had been once, year be-
fore, in bad weather, with DR.. Stewart
and a pilot. He seemed so confident, how
ever, that 1 decided TO trust him.
There was no cut path through some OF
the drogues of woods, not a single mark
on the ponds, not a pole on the marshes,
The dog was a large, rather short-haired
animal, striped gray and brown, like
tiger, with an intelligent face, that always
appeared to wear grin. We called him
Brin." i have once before owned a roof
over my head at night to the sagacty
and endurance of this dos. He was then
pup, but already leading my team. My
doctor colleague from Boston, Mass, was
driving the team behind mine. The third
team was seldom less than n mile behind
AS we covered the first few miles We
were delighted to find that my dog was
following a path that we could drive
along, while here and there VIC found A
stray blaze showing we were In the
track. The dog would sometimes cross a
pond at right angles to the track, through
the trees, and as II grew late we some
track again. The fascination of watching
The dog would, however have amply COM
pensated for a night in the woods on the
snow. Indeed, II became quite weird to
sit on the sledge and watch the confident
dog go on through the trackless country,
as If II were on a high road.
AT last We brought up short. We had
crossed a large double pond, turned sharp
round an island. and come to an impene-
| .
side of range of hills which faced the
lakes. Stll the leader went confidently
on, right into the trees, till all were tan
gled up. But II seemed as If he had no
doubt We halted to get the dogs back
! on the open, and we felt we had better
camp there than 30 farther and faro
worse. Our implicit confidence in the dog
at that moment looked like sheer folly,
and confess to getting off and comforting
| with DR.. Little as to what should be done
! next. 1t ended in my donning my snow
racquets and starting for a tour round the
lake, to see If the dog was even on a lake
with any outlet at all.
Tying up the team ] started, but on
| passing the very first big tree, | found
the path, narrow, Clcan-Cut and taking
the hillside at a sharp angle backward,
| so that actually the dog had only gone
the wrong side of one tree and made a
S''O'N NhN' WHICH hlu lllt ndlloW PAIN
from us. Naturally we let him have his
own way after that, and once we took
the bay ice, he brought us to the houses
| at full stretch gallon.
one reads many stories of animal In
| telligence but none of us could name the
! sense that brought our brindle dog across
| that country. 1t could not be smell. Not
soul had crossed the year to leave a
| foot scent. 1t could scarcely be sight,
for the snow and weather had been 80
bad the only other time the dog had done
| the journey that # had taken three days
! to cover what we did In less than 12 hours.
1t couldn't be hearing. The silence OF
the woods is absolute. The dog does not
suggest the idea Of much brain matter
anyhow. No mans memory, at any rate,
would carry all the details of those twists
ana turns for II months, especially when
so many other similar tracts Of country
were being Travelled daily
| The dog seemed to show a little par.
donable pride as he stood up and put his
| forepaws on my chest. But as ! looked
down into HIS intelligent face, still wear.
ing the everlasting grin, hardly knew
whether to laugh over the new expert
ence he had afforded us, so finally settled
the conundrum by giving him double
portion Of whale for supper.