Canine explorers on ice

Press, 1 November 1985, Page 12

Canine explorers on ice

Entering the R. H. Stewart Hall of Antarctic Discovery from the main landing, the visitor is greeted from a display case by Apolotok, a handsome Greenland dog, or husky, as the breed is more commonly known. Apolotok was a draught dog used by New Zealanders sledging from Scott Base.

His presence in the Canterbury Museum is this institution’s tribute to the canine explorers of the frozen continent, and the Antarctic Division of the D.S.I.R. is to be thanked for making this display possible.

Yet it was not the husky that did the trail-blazing, during the period now known as the “heroic era” of Antarctic exploration. That honour must go to the more lightly built Samoyed, or “Siberian dog” as they were first known outside of Russia. The introduction of this breed to both Britain and New Zealand was the end result of polar exploration and, by a quite odd coincidence, these introductions, which had no connection, brought about the attractive, pure white Samoyed dogs of today. Samoyeds corne in all colours in their native homelands of central and Northern Siberia and are used for herding reindeer, guard duties, and to a much lesser extent for draught work such as sledging. Early contacts with the Samoyed people recorded two sections of the tribe, one nomadic and the other pastoral. Among the nomadic tungunese section was a preference for the all-white dog, but the pastoral section bred dogs of all colours and combinations of colour. It appears an odd choice of the early polar explorers to seek the ise of this breed with its limita-

tions in sledging background. Yet, from Fridtjof Nansen to Captain Robert F. Scott’s last expedition of 1910, Samoyeds made up the sledging teams of the polar “greats.” Major Frederick Jackson, of the Jackson-Harmsworth Arctic expedition, on his return to England in 1899, presented his best dog to Princess Alexandra, and eight others were given to the kennels of Mr and Mrs Kilburn-Scott. The Kilburn-Scotts had imported, 10 years earlier from Archangel, a chocolate brown Samoyed dog named Sambarka (fat one) and had exhibited him at Leeds in 1893 as a “Samozia Sledge Dog.” The Kilburn-Scotts chose the present name of the breed and they also are credited with making the pure white dog popular, although Lady Sitwell in 1901, with two imported dogs, “Musti” and “Whity Pechora,” claimed that the resulting litter of this union was the real beginnings of the all-white Samoyed. Be that as it may, the world of dog breeders in Britain was now clamouring for white Samoyeds and all colour was being bred out within a few years. Events in New Zealand, although unrelated, ran in much the same direction. Carsten Borchgrevink took 70 Samoyed dogs with him to the Antarctic in 1899 and this expedition was the first to use dogs on that continent. (They were also the first men to spend a winter in Antarctica.) Many dogs died during that period but births kept the population up high so that at the completion of the expedition, when their ship, Southern Cross, arrived at Stewart Island on March 31, 1900, she had over 30 dogs on her decks.

Borchgrevink, with a reluctant Government approval, was allowed to land the dogs on Native Island in Patterson Islet to be cared for by the Trail family until the Discovery expedition of 1901 called to pick them up. But this pick-up was not to be, and keeping the dogs fed and exercised was a task few people would envy. Once it was known that Captain Scott in the Discovery had departed for the Antarctic without collecting the dogs, the Trail family had little choice but to destroy them. This they did with great reluctance but kept a few white ones from which to breed. This decision had nothing to do with breeders’ actions overseas; it was just that the white ones had become the most favoured by the family. Soon Borchgrevink’s dogs were sought by breeders everywhere and the pups met a ready sale for the Trails. Sir Joseph Ward became the first registered New Zealand breeder of Samoyeds. In 1917, Ernest Shackleton bought nine dogs from the Trails; five were bitches in pup, and in spite bf the loss of one of these

during the Nimrod’s voyage to Cape Royds, the dog population had risen to over 20 by the time a landing had been made. The return of this expedition to Lyttelton saw the local dog breeders seeking and obtaining servicing for their bitches in season and many dogs claim descent from these encounters. “Antarctic Buck,” a Bbrchgrevink dog, was bought by the Kil-bum-Scotts in England and his blood is proudly carried by many top European dogs. One of Shackleton’s dogs from Stewart Island was also returned to England by Lieutenant J. B. Adams where r ‘Tripp” added his share of good bloodlines. Captain Scott used 33 dogs on his last expedition, 30 of these being Samoveds from Northern Siberia

and one a gift from the KilburnScotts. This dog, “Olaf,”' was the son of “Antarctic Buck.” This breed can be seen now as the dog which opened up the Antarctic, not the heavier husky which followed with Mawson and Amundsen. They completed the job, I was recently given the opportunity of suggesting a desirable gift that the museum might seek from the Russian Antarctic authorities. I thought of a bust of Thaddeus Bellingshausen, the great Russian explorer, or a suit of polar field clothing. What a pity I did not suggest a true dog of the Samoyed people. On second thoughts I would not like to be the instrument of any dog’s death, yet it would be fitting to have an example of the breed to stand proudly alongside Apolotok.

By

BADEN NORRIS