Rensselaer Democrat, Volume 1, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 April 1898 — Unruly Sledge Dogs. [ARTICLE]

Unruly Sledge Dogs.

Carlo, a big retriever, opened the ball by killing one of the Ostiak dogs. He swaggered about among the pack, aind exhibited all the supposed characteristics of the Britisher abroad. To check his homicidal, or rather caniddal, proclivities, I tied the dead dog round his neck. This, however, he evidently viewed as an excellent arrangement, especially devised for the arctic, where the food supply is defective, and at once proceeded to make a cold lunch of his late adversary? looking up at me with grateful eyes, evidently thinking that it was very considerate of Jackson thus to provide him with a larder right at hand. After this the dead dog was removed, and Carlo was always decorated with a muzzle. I afterward made a good sledge dog of him, but he could not stand the severe climate, and although the doctor made a blanket coat for him, the poor old chap died sledging during the first fortnight in spite of it. The rest of the pack were hardly less bellicose, but conducted their battles on lines hardly in accordance with civilized warfare. With the exception of two or three dogs, I always had ,the entire pack chained up, having taken out a large supply of English chains; but I found these quite inadequate to restrain these comparatively small dogs. One dog would break loose, and then commence a fight with another. The whole pack would become wildly excited, and all would then fall upon the losing combatant. The result would be another dead dog.—F. G. Jackson, in the Geographical Journal.