BYRD'S HUSKIES.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19675, 19 July 1929, Page 14

BYRD'S HUSKIES.

NOT TO BE TRUSTED. A CANADIAN'S WARNING. In answer to an enquiry from a friend in Canada about the habits and nature of the type of huskie dogs which are being used in the Byrd Antarctic Expedition and which are now at the Hermitage, Mount Cook, Mr F. E. Hutchinson, Lecturer in the Canterbury College School of Forestry, has received the lollowing very interesting reply headed "Dominion Explorers, c.o. "Hudson Bay Co., Churchill, via Le Pas Man': "Was very interested in your account of the howling huskies of the Byrd Antarctic Expedition. Of course, most of it is rubbish, but there is some truth to it. They are Labrador dogs, and despite a friendly disposition, are not to be trusted at all. A lot of the dogs used here are shipped from Labrador, and here are a few of the results in the last couple of years: "Ex-Sergeant Clay, of the R.C.M.P., who is now working for this company, while on a trip north of Chesterfield, a few years ago, had his wife killed and terribly mangled in his absence by well-fed, and seemingly friendly dogs. The year before last they killed and at© a young child at Baker Lake. Last Fall we heard they had badly bitten a child there, and this winter they ate another. "I know quite a few Eskimos who have been badly bitten and chewed upLast winter they started on two occasions to gang upon some of our party and we had to use clubs on them. While running ahead of the dogs last winter, I always kept well in advance. or else stayed behind, because though seeminglv "the best of natures, they could not be trusted. Drivers use the short stocked whip, with a handle like a club, and a long lash, and they seldom go among the dog 3 much without it, and seldom or never when alone. I saw the dogs that ate the child at Baker Lake, and they look friendly enough "I have a string of them coming in by ship for next winter, and, believe me, T am going to take no chances." Mr Hutchinson said that he had driven dog teams himself and was therefore specially interested in the subject. Any breed of dog crossed with a wolf was called a huskie. His Canadian friend is a prospector in the Hudson Bay Companv and has had a wide experience of sledge dogs.