The Great Lone Land: A Narrative of Travel and Adventure in the North-West of AmericaButler, William Francis, Sir
History
The Great Lone Land: A Narrative of Travel and Adventure in the North-West of America
Butler, William Francis, Sir
Northwest, Canadian -- Description and travel
pleasure to sit behind such a train of dogs; it is a pain to watch the
other poor brutes toiling at their traces. But, after all it is the same
with dog-driving as with every other thing; there are dogs and there
-are dogs, and the distance from one to the other is as, great as that
between a Thames barge and a Cowes schooner.
The hauling-dogs day is a long tissue of trial. While yet the night is
in its small hours, and the aurora is beginning to think of hiding its
trembling lustre in the earliest dawn, the hauling-dog has his slumber
rudely broken by the summons of his driver. Poor beast! All night long he
has lain curled up in the roundest of round balls hard by the camp;
there, in the lea of tree-stumps or snow-drift, he has dreamt the dreams
of peace and comfort. If the night has been one of storm, the
fast-falling flakes have added to his sense of warmth by covering him
completely beneath them. Perhaps, too, he will remain unseen by the
driver when the fatal moment comes for harnessing-up. Not a bit of it. He
lies ever so quiet under the snow, but the rounded hillock betrays his
hiding place; and he is dragged forth to the gaudy gear of bells and
moose-skin lying ready to receive him. Then comes the start. The pine or
aspen bluff is left behind, and under the grey starlight we plod along
through the snow. Day dawns, sun rises, morning wears into midday, and it
is time to halt for dinner; then on again in Indian file, as before. If
there is no track in the snow a man goes in front on snow-shoes, and the
leading dog, or "foregoer," as he is called, trots close behind him. If
there should be a track, however faint, the dog-will follow it himself;
and when sight fails to show it, or storm has hidden it beneath drifts,
his sense of smell will enable him to keep straight. Thus through the
long waste we journey on, by frozen lakelet, by willow copse, through
pine forest, or over treeless prairie, until the winter's day draws to
its close and the darkening landscape bids us seek some resting-place
for the night. Then the hauling-dog is taken out of the harness, and his
day's work is at an end; his whip-marked face begins to look less rueful,
he stretches and rolls in the dry powdery snow, and finally twists
himself a bed and goes fast asleep. But the real moment of pleasure is
still in store for him When our supper is over the chopping of the axe,
on the block of pemmican, or the unloading of the frozen white-fish from
the provision-sled, tells him that his is about to begin. He springs
lightly up and watches eagerly these preparations for his supper. On
the plains he receives a daily ration of 2 lbs. of pemmican. In the
forest and lake country, where fish is the staple food, he gets two large
white-fish raw. He prefers fish to meat, and will work better on it too.
His supper is soon over; there is a short after-piece of growling and
snapping at hungry comrade, and then he lies down out in the snow to
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