BYRD'S DOGS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 257, 31 October 1933, Page 5

BYRD'S DOGS.

FOR THE ANTARCTIC. 150 IN TRAINING. POWER, NOT SPEED, OBJECTIVE (By a Special Correspondent.) WONALANCET, N.H., Sept. 25. Up from a little hollow here among the green New Hampshire hills there rises from time to time these keen fall days a wild and eager chorus. Byimportunate whimperings, by loud, | excited barkings and hayings, by howls, eloquent of wolf ancestors, the 150 sled dogs of Rear-Admiral Richard E. Byrd'e second Antarctic expedition tell the passers-by they are just rarin , to go. ! Perhaps the finest collection of sled ; dogs any expedition has ever gathered is here at the Chinook kennels. Many were bred at the kennels by the proprietor, Martin J. Seeley. Some others have been purchased in Canada and elsewhere and sent here for final training and conditioning along with the other dogs under the direction of Seeley and Norman Vaughan, a veteran of the first expedition. The task entailed by transporting these dogs more than 15,000 miles is indicated by the fact that 50 tons of food must be taken from this country for them. Thirty single-end and 20*doubleend sledges, and 150 harnesses and | material for repairs and new harnesses [are other items. Alan Innes Taylor will be in charge of the dogs during the expedition. He has had wide experience with sled dogs, having served five years with the Royal North-west Mounted Police in the Yukon Territory and other parts of North-West Canada, where dogs, either in teams to draw sleds or as pack animals in summer, are the only means of land transport. He has also experimented in dog breeding. Inside the grounds at Chinook Kennels are score upon score of sled dogs of every conceivable type, huskies from all around

the Antarctic Circle, malemutes, | "Chinooks," and other breeds. Some are expedition dogs, others will remain with Seeley. Here was Skii, who is one of the few real Antarctic huskies in the world. He was born on the ice and was brought back by Captain Ashley McKinley, second in command of the first Byrd expedition, who has. lent him for use on the second. A big, blackish, powerfullooking dog, he promises to make a name for himself. Then there was Holly, one of the females, who will be taken along in order that her puppies may serve as replacements. Holly was on the first expedition, and several of her puppies were brought back to this country. Tuck the Mascot. One dog who won't go along really rates a place on the expedition roster, for he has been a sort of mascot for the dog drivers' camp. His name is Tuck, and for several years he was the leader of one of the fastest racing dog teams in New England. Last year he was displaced by his own son. Sent to Chinook Kennels some time ago, he practically adopted his masters. As a luck bringer he rates almost even with the wooden epoon which is emblem and alarm clock at once for the dog drivers. When an alarm clock, by the by, the spoon is operated in the right hand of which ever member of the party wakes first. The training of dogs for work in the Antarctic is somewhat different from training them for sled racing. Edward L. Moody, one of the trainers, had racing dogs of his own before he went to Wentworth Institute, has handled other racing teams since for Seeley, and took part in training the Byrd expedition dogs. He I likens the difference between the two i forms of sledging to that between horse racing and working truck horses. For racing, he pointed out, the idea is to keep the dogs at as close to top speed as possible up hill and down dale. The driver gauges the ability of his dogs to keep at high speed much as a jockey judges the staying power of his mount. Fifty miles a day for three days was; a fair average race until last winter, when bad snow conditions cut the distance to fifteen or twenty miles a day and the time' to a day or two. Strength the Essential. In the Antarctic great speed is not essential. Strength to pull a heavilyladen sled and endurance to pull it day

after day, often over frightful terrain, are what count in Polar exploration. An ordinary team of nine dogs should pull around half a ton on a eledging journey. So pulling is emphasised from . the time harness is put on a puppy. Most of the sled dogs seem to have an inherited instinct for it and often begin without direction from the driver. As leoon as they are broken to harness and get the idea of pulling, the young dogs are hitched up with one or more old dogs and learn their business quickly if properly handled. The experienced dogs usually take an intelligent interest in helping the youngsters. For example, two of the expedition's many Jacks, Ja'ck the Dane and Jack the Giant Killer, will themselves intervene to stop a fight in the traces if they can reach the offenders. Nursed Through the Tropics. One of the serious problems of an Antarctic expedition is getting the heavily coated dogs through the tropics. ''We shall build a false wooden deck on the Pacific Fir," Taylor told the reporter, "and over that an awning will be rigged. One of the difficulties in the tropics is that the dogs won't cat and, therefore, lose strength. But they will drink, and the thing is to give them something which, will have some nourishment. "When we were going through the tropics in 1929 I found that the dogs would drink barley water, although they wouldn't eat. We made it fresh every day, much as it would be made for a human invalid, but thinner. We didn't lose a dog, and I intend to give it regularly to all our doge going down." Taylor says that sledge dogs are intelligent, and, if properly treated, with kindness, but with discipline, too, they are rarely bad-tempered and are often affectionate. If abused they are extremely vicious. If well treated, he added, one of their best qualities is their faithfulness, and he cited a case in the Yukon where a man collapsed and died in a blizzard. Hie dogs died with him, apparently unwilling to leave him. The Byrd dogs will have plenty to do on the coming expedition. They will do much, perhaps all, of the work of transporting supplies and equipment from the Bay of Whales to Little America, and will be used in a considerable number of sledging parties. In fact, they will have almost as important a part as eledge dogs did on expeditions ; before flying was practical. The day of the eledge dog is anything but dead in Antarctica.—N.A.N.A.