travelling as pack animals, and a stranger would be astonished to see
what loads these dogs will carry. I have seen a fine large dog that
would carry two saddles of reindeer meat, or the entire fore-quarters
of two reindeer. His back would be bent low beneath the burden he bore,
but still he would struggle along, panting the while and regarding his
master with a look of the deepest affection whenever he came near him
yet ever ready to fight any other dog that got in his way.

These, then, were the faithful comrades of our march. Before the day
appointed by Lieutenant Schwatka they were ready. We were all eager to
start. The projected journey was one which more than one expedition had
undertaken without success since Sir Leopold McClintock's memorable
sledge journey, which accomplished so much, and left so much to be
desired. We were determined to bring it to a successful issue. Our
igloo life at Camp Daly during the previous winter had inured us to the
climate, so that, though we often found the cold intensely
disagreeable, we were free from the evil consequences that have
assailed many expeditions and make Arctic travel so dangerous, though
few have been exposed to such low temperature as was our party,
especially during the return trip in the winter of 1879-80. Previous
sledge journeys had taught us how to clothe ourselves and otherwise
provide against the cold, and we had already become acquainted with
Inuit fare, so that when the emergency arrived when we were compelled
to subsist entirely upon such food, we did not regard it with that
repugnance that those would who had not become accustomed to it. In
other words, we had become thoroughly acclimated during the eight
months we had already lived in the country.