THE GOLDEN AGE OF DOGTEAM TRAVEL
The following is a chapter from the book People of Light and Dark edited by Maja van Steensel and published in 1966. The chapter is titled “…and How to Get From Point to Point” and was written by W.E. Brown who has an impressive northern curriculum vitae including “Transport Manager, Hudson’s Bay Company, Winnipeg. Arctic service with R.C.M.P. Forty years with Hudson’s Bay Company. Company positions at Eskimo Point, James Bay, Mackenzie River and Nelson River. Established tractor route from Wager Inlet to Chantrey Inlet, supervised transport from Fort Norman to Echo Bay, survey of fur trade potential on Pacific Coast and Alaska”.
“Travel in the north can still be challenging and if one uses dog teams it will most certainly be an experience. How do the dogs feel about it? Well, that seems to depend on the type of harness used”.
"….Winter is the most important season in the north, because it’s by far the longest. During that period the dog team was the main form of transport and is still used by some trappers. Among dog team buffs there are as many models of sleds and toboggans as there are automobile models on today’s car lots. These vary from the elaborate basket sled of Alaska and the Yukon, or the jumper sled of northern British Columbia, to the widely-used toboggan of the northern Indians east of the Rocky Mountains, and the komatik of the Eskimos. Types of harnesses and dogs are equally varied. Each sled model has been developed to meet local conditions, although on one occasion I had serious doubts on that score. During the course of an inspection trip some years ago, through the Cassiar country of northern British Columbia, I spent many days travelling by dog team. Jumper sleds were used, a type designed for crusted snow. But unfortunately that’s not what we ran into, and we almost bogged down in soft deep snow -- a condition that calls for a toboggan-type of hand or dog sled.
The toboggan type is the most widely used of all. Originally hand-hewn, usually from birch, the modern one is now generally constructed of oak. It is made of two eight inch wide boards, giving the toboggan a total width of 16 inches. Pre-bent to shape, it has a very high curved head, which makes it well adapted for negotiating narrow bush trails. The length, or “drag” is based on the length of the board’s actual contact with the snow, not including the head, and this can vary from a six to a sixteen foot drag.
The modern Eskimo sled, or komatik, is usually made from Sitka spruce and varies in length from 10 feet to 24 feet, although, in the Ashiarmuit country I have seen 30 feet long komatiks made from spliced, local black spruce. These sleds are built on two runners fastened together with crossbars lashed across the top. Metal is never used as a fastening as it becomes too brittle in low temperatures. With all the white man’s technological progress, it is doubtful that we can show an Eskimo a more friction-free surface than the mudded sled runner. The process of “mudding” a sled is very like a child’s mud-pie making technique. The exception is that the mud is moulded on the bottom of the runner, carefully planed down to a smooth surface, and iced. This icing process is carried out by filling the mouth with water and squirting it on a small piece of polar bear skin held in the hand. This water-saturated bearskin is rubbed back and forth on the mud surface, leaving a thin film of ice. The secret of a good running surface is complete coverage with he thinnest possible film of ice. Part of an Eskimo’s trail equipment is a small bag of earth, a piece of bearskin, and a small often home-made plane. Earth is not too plentiful in the Barrens and in travelling over rocky terrain, the spare earth supply can be exhausted at times. On several trips I’ve made, it’s been necessary to use flour or rolled oats, taken from our precious food supply, to replace the mud lost off the komatik. With a freshly-iced sled it’s possible to move a 1, 200 pound load on level snow with one hand.
Types of harnesses and hitches are almost as varied as the sleds. But, after travelling many thousands of miles by dog sled, through all sections of the Canadian arctic and sub arctic, I’d class the Eskimo harness as the most efficient; in fact if I were a sled dog, with free choice, that’s the type I would choose without hesitation. The dogs are hitched to the toboggan in tandem, with leather traces and leather collars. This is different from the Alaskan hitch of two dogs abreast on a single trace, with one leader in front. I should also mention that the dogs differ widely in the north, with the Eskimo dog of the eastern arctic a heavier slower type than the rangier dogs of the Mackenzie and Yukon area”.
Notes: This article was written at least 45 years ago. I have maintained the original sentence/paragraph structure and terminology, some of which is now outdated.
While I’m not totally certain just what a “jumper sled” is, given the fact that he is talking about using this sled in northern British Columbia, I suspect that he may be referring to the type of sled that was made popular during the Klondike Gold Rush. These sleds were mass-produced in the thousands, they were essentially a platform for hauling freight. They consisted of two wooden runners, were often made of softwood and while there could be mortise and tenon joints, they were simply fastened with nails. Wooden stanchions about 4 inches high with a cross-piece were placed approximately every two feet, the sleds were 18 inches in width and boards ran the length of the sled serving as a bed for placing the freight. These sleds were designed to be pulled by humans, dogs, horses and even oxen. They were not designed with a musher in mind, it was not possible to stand on the back of the runners and the musher (or more accurately the freighter) usually walked at the front of the sled on the right hand side, holding a “gee pole” to help brake the sled on hills and to act as a pivot point to assist with tight turns. With time, these sleds were adapted with the addition of two poles or saplings running on both sides from the front of the sled to poles or a backboard fastened at the back of the sled, giving the appearance of side rails and a handlebar. The musher would then drive the sled from the back, holding on to these poles but still walking as there was no place to stand on the runners.
The following is a chapter from the book People of Light and Dark edited by Maja van Steensel and published in 1966. The chapter is titled “…and How to Get From Point to Point” and was written by W.E. Brown who has an impressive northern curriculum vitae including “Transport Manager, Hudson’s Bay Company, Winnipeg. Arctic service with R.C.M.P. Forty years with Hudson’s Bay Company. Company positions at Eskimo Point, James Bay, Mackenzie River and Nelson River. Established tractor route from Wager Inlet to Chantrey Inlet, supervised transport from Fort Norman to Echo Bay, survey of fur trade potential on Pacific Coast and Alaska”.
“Travel in the north can still be challenging and if one uses dog teams it will most certainly be an experience. How do the dogs feel about it? Well, that seems to depend on the type of harness used”.
"….Winter is the most important season in the north, because it’s by far the longest. During that period the dog team was the main form of transport and is still used by some trappers. Among dog team buffs there are as many models of sleds and toboggans as there are automobile models on today’s car lots. These vary from the elaborate basket sled of Alaska and the Yukon, or the jumper sled of northern British Columbia, to the widely-used toboggan of the northern Indians east of the Rocky Mountains, and the komatik of the Eskimos. Types of harnesses and dogs are equally varied. Each sled model has been developed to meet local conditions, although on one occasion I had serious doubts on that score. During the course of an inspection trip some years ago, through the Cassiar country of northern British Columbia, I spent many days travelling by dog team. Jumper sleds were used, a type designed for crusted snow. But unfortunately that’s not what we ran into, and we almost bogged down in soft deep snow -- a condition that calls for a toboggan-type of hand or dog sled.
The toboggan type is the most widely used of all. Originally hand-hewn, usually from birch, the modern one is now generally constructed of oak. It is made of two eight inch wide boards, giving the toboggan a total width of 16 inches. Pre-bent to shape, it has a very high curved head, which makes it well adapted for negotiating narrow bush trails. The length, or “drag” is based on the length of the board’s actual contact with the snow, not including the head, and this can vary from a six to a sixteen foot drag.
The modern Eskimo sled, or komatik, is usually made from Sitka spruce and varies in length from 10 feet to 24 feet, although, in the Ashiarmuit country I have seen 30 feet long komatiks made from spliced, local black spruce. These sleds are built on two runners fastened together with crossbars lashed across the top. Metal is never used as a fastening as it becomes too brittle in low temperatures. With all the white man’s technological progress, it is doubtful that we can show an Eskimo a more friction-free surface than the mudded sled runner. The process of “mudding” a sled is very like a child’s mud-pie making technique. The exception is that the mud is moulded on the bottom of the runner, carefully planed down to a smooth surface, and iced. This icing process is carried out by filling the mouth with water and squirting it on a small piece of polar bear skin held in the hand. This water-saturated bearskin is rubbed back and forth on the mud surface, leaving a thin film of ice. The secret of a good running surface is complete coverage with he thinnest possible film of ice. Part of an Eskimo’s trail equipment is a small bag of earth, a piece of bearskin, and a small often home-made plane. Earth is not too plentiful in the Barrens and in travelling over rocky terrain, the spare earth supply can be exhausted at times. On several trips I’ve made, it’s been necessary to use flour or rolled oats, taken from our precious food supply, to replace the mud lost off the komatik. With a freshly-iced sled it’s possible to move a 1, 200 pound load on level snow with one hand.
Types of harnesses and hitches are almost as varied as the sleds. But, after travelling many thousands of miles by dog sled, through all sections of the Canadian arctic and sub arctic, I’d class the Eskimo harness as the most efficient; in fact if I were a sled dog, with free choice, that’s the type I would choose without hesitation. The dogs are hitched to the toboggan in tandem, with leather traces and leather collars. This is different from the Alaskan hitch of two dogs abreast on a single trace, with one leader in front. I should also mention that the dogs differ widely in the north, with the Eskimo dog of the eastern arctic a heavier slower type than the rangier dogs of the Mackenzie and Yukon area”.
Notes: This article was written at least 45 years ago. I have maintained the original sentence/paragraph structure and terminology, some of which is now outdated.
While I’m not totally certain just what a “jumper sled” is, given the fact that he is talking about using this sled in northern British Columbia, I suspect that he may be referring to the type of sled that was made popular during the Klondike Gold Rush. These sleds were mass-produced in the thousands, they were essentially a platform for hauling freight. They consisted of two wooden runners, were often made of softwood and while there could be mortise and tenon joints, they were simply fastened with nails. Wooden stanchions about 4 inches high with a cross-piece were placed approximately every two feet, the sleds were 18 inches in width and boards ran the length of the sled serving as a bed for placing the freight. These sleds were designed to be pulled by humans, dogs, horses and even oxen. They were not designed with a musher in mind, it was not possible to stand on the back of the runners and the musher (or more accurately the freighter) usually walked at the front of the sled on the right hand side, holding a “gee pole” to help brake the sled on hills and to act as a pivot point to assist with tight turns. With time, these sleds were adapted with the addition of two poles or saplings running on both sides from the front of the sled to poles or a backboard fastened at the back of the sled, giving the appearance of side rails and a handlebar. The musher would then drive the sled from the back, holding on to these poles but still walking as there was no place to stand on the runners.
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