“Marche”; Sledge Dogs in the North West Fur Trade
by Swanny
Although
mushing sled dogs is officially recognized as the Alaska State sport,
the sport’s roots grow deeply in Canadian soil. When modern dog sled
racers aim their teams toward the finish lines of the North Country’s
great races they are following the long obscured tracks of historical
Canadian hivernants. If the prize money offered the winners of
Minnesota’s “John Beargrease Dog Sled Marathon”, Alaska and Yukon
Territory’s “Yukon Quest” and even the world famous Iditarod Trail Sled
Dog Classic were all combined, that healthy sum would pale in comparison
to the vast profits earned as a result of the work performed by the dog
drivers of the historical North American fur trade.
No one
knows who might have been the first human to harness a dog to a sled.
The earliest archaeological evidence of dog harnesses and other
specialized equipment for dog traction occurs in Canadian Thule sites,
and it may have been these people who invented this mode of
transportation that greatly increased the range of winter hunting and
travel at some point between AD 1000 and AD 1600. Historical records of
the use of sled dogs in the Siberian Sub Arctic appear in Arabian
literature of the tenth century; in writings of Marco Polo in the
thirteenth century; and of Francesco de Kollo in the sixteenth. (Coppinger
L) An illustration taken from the 1675 edition of Martin Frobisher's "Historic
Navigations." shows a dog in harness pulling what appears to be a
canoe-like sled. (Noel)
There is little doubt that dog traction was
extremely important to the indigenous people of North America long
before the first Europeans arrived. Dog
power was quickly adopted by early colonists in New France (Canada) and
the use of dog sleds was very common by the eighteenth century.
Traveling in Quebec in 1749 Peter Kalm wrote, “In winter it is
customary in Canada, for travellers to put dogs before little sledges,
made on purpose to hold their cloathes, provisions, &c. Poor people
commonly employ them on their winter-journies, and go on foot
themselves. Almost all the wood, which the poorer people in this
country fetch out of the woods in winter, is carried by dogs, which have
therefore got the name of horses of the poor people. They commonly
place a pair of dogs before each load of wood. I have, likewise seen
some neat little sledges, for ladies to ride in, in winter; they are
drawn by a pair of dogs, and go faster on a good road, than one would
think. A middle-sized dog is sufficient to draw a single person, when
the roads are good.” (Kalm 448-9)
French Canadian dog teams saw military service during the Seven Years
War (French and Indian War). Louis Antoine Bougainville’s journal entry
for the period of February 17 – 28 includes the note, “Each of them
(the soldiers) has assembled his dog team to draw the sleds,
some have even taken horses. Dogs, at the time departure, cost up to
one hundred livres.” (Bougainville 87)
By 1775
many of the men who would steer the destiny of the Northwestern fur
trade were already in place. James McGill, Benjamin Frobisher and
Maurice Blondeau outfitted twelve canoes at Michilimackinac in a new
partnership, which they named “The Northwest Company”. During their
travels through the wilds that winter they met with Alexander Henry
(the Elder), Peter Pond, Joseph and Thomas Frobisher, Charles Patterson
and Jean Baptiste Cadot. (Armour & Widder 40) Not only were
these men competing against each other for the trade, they were also in
fierce competition against the long-established Hudson's Bay Company.
As competition increased among the traders
it became necessary to take the trade directly into the Indian
encampments. In some cases this was accomplished by sending junior
clerks to live among the nomadic bands of Indians. This practice
called "tenting" was already the policy of the
Hudson’s Bay Company. In other circumstances traders played the role of
traveling salesmen by going en derouine, traveling to Indian camps
with a selection of trade goods and then return with the furs purchased
during the trip. Both tenting and going en derouine
required that goods and furs be transported between the trading house
and Indian encampments. Fisheries and hunting grounds that
provided food for the traders and their employees were often distant
from the posts, and even firewood frequently had to be transported
several miles. As with modern corporations, lines of communication
were necessary not only to ensure the flow of inventory and furs from
one place to another but also the most important resource of all,
information. During the long winters, dog drawn sledges proved the
only practical solution to the transportation needs of the fur trade.
The Dogs:
The
Nor’westers didn’t use nearly so many dogs in their teams as do today’s
mushers, who may start a major long distance race with more than a dozen
dogs in harness. The majority of primary references I’ve found
documenting practices between about 1750 and about 1880 indicate that
historical dog teams (called traineau or “trains”) ranged from
only 2 to no more than six animals. No one single breed dominated the
sled dog scene in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
One contemporary writer noted this fact as he wrote “Dogs of high and
low degree were brought for inspection; for dogs in the North have but
one occupation – to haul. From the Esquimaux downthrough all the stages
of canine life to the Indian mongrel, all are alike doomed to labor
before a sledge of some kind during the winter months….”(Robinson 4)
The majority of sled dogs used by Nor’westers were apparently of random
breeding and some carried more than a little bit of wolf-blood in their
veins. On August 10th, 1801 Alexander Henry the Younger
wrote “…(one) of my men brought in six young wolves he had found in
one hole; they were very tame, and we proposed to keep them for the
trains, as they are of the large species.(Henry 175) In 1819 an observer at
Cumberland House noted “They (the dogs) resemble wolves, both in
appearance and disposition. {Hood 46)
By far the
best primary description of the sled dogs used in the Northern fur trade
was provided in the colorful memoirs of H.M. Robinson, who wrote, “These
animals are mostly of the ordinary Indian kind, large, long-legged, and
wolfish with sharp muzzles, pricked ears, and thick, straight,
wiryhair. White is one of the most usual colors, but brown, blue-grey,
red, yellow, and white marked with spots of black, or of the other
various hues, are also common. Some of them are black with white paws,
others are covered with long rough hair, like Russian setters. There
are others of a light bluish-grey, with dark, almost black spots spread
over the whole body…. Most of them are very wolfish in appearance, many
being half or partly, or all but entirely, wolves in blood. One
frequently sees dogs which are said to be almost pure wolves.” (Robinson 224-225)
Although the historical dog teams were relatively small compared to
those of modern dog sled drivers, they routinely drew considerable
loads. Daniel Harmon provided several journal entries describing the
loads hauled by his animals. On December 21st, 1801 North
West Company fur trader Daniel Harmon recorded, “Each man had a
Sledge drawn by two Dogs loaded with one hundred & fifty pounds wight
(weight) of Furs, and Provisions, for man & beasts to perform the trip.”
On December 13th, 1812 he elaborated on capabilities of the
Company’s dogs. “Our goods are drawn on sledges by dogs. Each pair
of dogs drew a load of from two hundred, to two hundred and fifty
pounds, besides provisions for themselves and their driver, which would
make the whole load about three hundred pounds. I have seen many dogs,
two of which would draw on a sledge, five hundred pounds, twenty miles,
in five hours. For a short distance, two of our stoutest dogs will draw
more than a thousand pounds weight.” (Harmon 40 & 147)
By the
middle of the nineteenth century larger teams (as many as 4 dogs) were
becoming more common. H.M. Robinson noted that, “An average train of
four dogs will trot briskly along with three hundred pounds’ weight
without difficulty. Trains loaded to travel short distances with a
barrel of liquor and two sacks of flour, or about six hundred and eighty
pounds avoirdupois, are not an uncommon sight.”(Robinson 228) In 1862
missionary John McDougall used a team of four dogs to haul “about 250
pounds of a load, consisting of ammunition and tobacco.” (McDougall)
Until the late nineteenth century sledge dogs were trained to respond to
only two voice cues. These were the traditional French “marche”
(often mispronounced “mush”) to set the team in motion and “whoa” to
tell the team to stop. In the last decade of the nineteenth century
Hudson’s Bay Company employee William Miller trained the first team of
“Eskimo dogs” to respond to turn right (gee) or left (haw) (Anderson 21) John
McDougall described the manner in which he trained a team of one year
old pups: “My plan was to hitch the pups to a toboggan, and attached
to this I had a long line, the end of which I kept in my hand, and as I
ran behind I could, when I said “Whoa,”, stop the dogs.” (McDougall 231) Many
others simply hitched the young dog into a team of veterans, and let the
older animals take care of the training (Bush 151)
The Dog Driver’s Tools:
The most common vehicle used for hauling freight during winter was
most often referred to as a “sledge” and is the same vehicle we call a
`toboggan’ today. Robinson described a typical freight-sledge as
follows: “It is made of two thin oak or birch-wood boards lashed
together with deer-skin thongs. Turned up in front, like a Norwegian
snowshoe – scarcely a quarter of a circle – it is from nine to twelve
feet in length, and sixteen inches broad. Along it’s outer edges a
leather lashing is passed to tie down tightly to its surface whatever
may be placed upon it.”(Robinson 226) Historical dog sledges were typically
narrow enough to fit within the trail broken by a man on snowshoes.
John McDougall wrote that during one of his earliest freight runs he
loaded “some four hundred pounds of (buffalo) tongues and cakes and
bladders of grease and bags of pounded meat, on a small toboggan, some
eight feet(long) by one foot (wide) in size.” (McDougall 25)
The
“cariole”, or passenger-sledge, was a variation of the freight sledge
adapted to carry a passenger. It was the vehicle of a bourgeois
and was as much a symbol of the man’s status as it was a tool of
transportation. On December 28, 1803 Daniel Harmon wrote that he
sometimes rode about the country “in a cariol (sic) drawn by a
Horse when there is not much Snow, but when the depth is too great by
Dogs….”(Harmon 71) Alexander Henry the Younger rode in a cariole when he
journeyed from Rocky Mountain House to the Continental Divided in 1811.
He described this vehicle as “…made by stretching a wet parchment of
mooseskins over a few timbers, to which it was well secured with a
line. This forms a comfortable voiture, prevents the snow from
gathering in the sled, and keeps a person snug and warm, wrapped in a
buffalo robe.”(Henry 192 & 677)
H.M. Robinson’s memoirs provides a more thorough description of a
cariole. “A cariole consists of a very thin board, usually not over
half an inch thick, fifteen to twenty inches wide, and about ten feet
long, turned up at one end in the form of a half circle, like the bend
of an Ojibway canoe. To this board a light frame-work. resembling a
coffin, or a slipper-bath, is attached, about eighteen inches from the
rear end. This frame-work is then covered over with buffalo-skin
parchment, and painted and decorated according to taste. When
traveling, it is lined with buffalo-robes and blankets, in the midst of
which the passenger sits, or rather reclines. The projecting end or
floor behind the passenger’s seat is utilized as a sort of boot upon
which to tie baggage, or as a platform upon which the driver may stand
to gain temporary respite when tired of running. (Robinson
225-226) Like freight
sledges, carioles were quite narrow, “just broad enough to admit one
person.” (Ballentyne 187)
Those driving dogs in the plains and woodlands hitched their teams in
tandem so they might negotiate the narrow trails most efficiently. “Four
dogs to each team form a complete train, though three and even two are
used, and are harnessed to the cariole by means of two long traces.
Between these traces the dogs stand one after the other, with a space
intervening between them of perhaps a foot. A round collar, passing
over the head and ears and fitting closely to the shoulder, buckles on
each side to the traces, which are supported by a back-band of leather.”
(Robinson 226-7) McDougall noted that harness for dogs were made of moose skin as
opposed to those for horses, which were made of partly tanned buffalo
hide. (McDougall 18)
The Routine of Dog Sledge
Travel:
The voyageurs driving the dogs rarely rode on the sleds. On a
well packed trail the drivers ran on snowshoes, following the sleds.
Sometimes the drivers used tag lines to help control the vehicle and
they always brandished a whip which was combined with a healthy dose of
strong language to control the team. If no packed trail was available
the drivers hiked ahead of their animals, using their snowshoes to
pack the trail. Sometimes drivers had to break trail for days at a
time. On January 13, 1802 Alexander Henry set out from his Red River
post for the Assiniboine, by way of Riviere aux Gratias and upon his
return he recorded, “Each of my men had a train of two dogs, with my
baggage and provisions, and I a train drawn by three stout dogs. Snow
very deep; my men were obliged to beat the road all the way on
snowshoes. We were one day going to Riviere aux Gratias; five thence to
Portage la Prairie; five thence to Riviere la Souris; two thence to
Delorme’s house in the Hair hills ; four to Langlois’ house; and one
back to Panbian (Pembina) river. All this distance my men walked
hard upon snowshoes.” (Henry 193)
If the eighteen days that Henry’s men spent breaking trail were at all
typical, they were probably very long days indeed. The dog-sledge
traveling day usually began many hours before sunrise and didn’t end
until well into the long winter nights. Alexander Henry was no stranger
to this routine. His journal entries made while traveling from Rocky
Mountain House to the continental divide in 1811 show that on February 4th
the party started at 4:30 am, and on February 12th they were
on the trail at 3:00. On that day they made camp early, at 3:00 p.m.
because the dogs were too exhausted to continue.(Henry 698) More often than
not the voyageurs stayed on the trail until daylight had long
been replaced by the feeble glow of the Northern Lights.
Trying to control a pack of untrained dogs is one of life’s more
frustrating tasks and it requires an especially colorful vocabulary.
Even the most worthy of Christian missionaries gave vent to their anger
when dealing with the mutts. “…it is said that one of the
missionaries on the Saskatchewan, a most worthy and pious man, when
travelling with some of his flock in the winter, astonished and
horrified his companions by suddenly giving vent, in his distraction, to
most dreadful anathemas against his dogs. They were lying coolly down
in the most aggravating manner, with their heads turned round narrowly
watching him, but without making the smallest effort to help themselves
and him out of the difficulty into which they had fallen.”(Bush 82)
Another anecdote concerns a bishop making an extended winter tour of
several hundred miles through his diocese. When the bishop complained
that his team was falling behind those of his companions, the driver
replied that the dogs did not respond to his whippings unless he also
swore at them, but that “out of respect to his reverence he had
abstained from using strong words.” The bishop ordered to
driver to swear away to his heart’s content, and promised he would give
full absolution at the end of the journey.(Young 12)
Sadly, few
Northern dog drivers were content to merely vent their frustration with
words. Each carried a whip which was used liberally and with a level of
brutality that was remarkable even in an age when harsh treatment of
animals was considered normal and necessary. Only one of hundreds of
such reports reads, “Then ensued that inhuman thrashing and varied
cursing, that howling of dogs and systematic brutality of drivers, which
make up the romance of winter-travel, and degrade the driver lower than
the brutes….Dogs are often stubborn and provoking, and require flogging
until brought into subjection; but lashings upon the body while laboring
in the trains, systematic floggings upon the head till their ears drop
blood, beatings with whip-stocks until nose and jaws are one deep wound,
and poundings with clubs and stamping with boots till their howls merge
into low wails of agony, are the frequent penalties of a slight
deviation from duty. Of the four dogs attached to the provision sledge,
three underwent repeated beatings at the hands of the Cree. By
mid-afternoon the head of Whiskey was reduced to a bleeding, swollen
mass from tremendous thrashings. Chocolat (sic) had but one eye
wherewith to watch the dreaded driver, and Brandy had wasted so much
strength in wild lurches and sudden springs, in order to dodge the
descending whip, that he had none remaining for the legitimate task of
hauling the sledge.”(Robinson 23) James Carnegie was astonished by the
brutal treatment of the dogs and wrote, “The strange thing is, that
men who are full of kindness and humanity towards one another and
towards the rest of creation, should be as bad as the greatest ruffians
in their treatment of the poor dogs – those most useful slaves who will
work day and night, almost without rest, for weeks together.(Carnegie
339)
Having
endured the punishment of long hours upon the trail, man and beast were
beyond exhausted when the time finally came to make camp for the
evening. When on the trail the hard working dogs were fed once each
day, shortly after the men had finished their own supper. “In the
plain-country, a daily ration of two pounds of pemmican is thrown him;
in the region of forest and stream, where fish forms the staple food, he
receives two large white-fish raw.”(Robinson 15) Robinson’s sledge dogs were
quite well fed compared to may. Other dog food recorded in historical
sources include “the offals of dried and stinking fish”, “as much tallow
as we took ourselves”, and “a caribou hind and forequarter per day”.
One thrifty historical traveler gave double-meaning to the term ‘dog
food’ when he wrote “…almost before I could turn, [Old Yellow] had
gobbled down one of her pups. As none of the litter will ever be of
sledging use, I have taken the hint, and refreshed Old Yellow with a
daily morning puppy.”(Bush 158 - 160)
Arctic
explorer Elisha Kane described the scene typical of feeding-time. “All
the trains were fed at the same time when we camped at night and such a
scene cannot be duplicated anywhere on earth. As we emerged from the
lodge with the tiny feed rolled up in the skirt of our capote, there was
a rush by the dogs that pretty nearly carried us off our feet, and
frequently knocked down the lodge….When after much fighting, each [man]
gathered his own [team] the actual process of feeding began, and this
again demanded much activity and some strategy to ensure every dog of
your train getting its portion….my method was to run each dog in turn a
few yards from the other three, quickly toss his meat to him before the
others caught up, and then stand guard over him while he ate it.”(E.
Kane 376)
After the dogs were fed the men could finally crawl in to their blankets
and robes with the expectation of shivering through few hours remaining
in the night in order repeat the routine, well before sunrise.
When one considers the amount of weight drawn by teams that were sorely
abused and often poorly fed, the distances covered during those long,
hard days of running was noteworthy. Daniel Harmon noted that his teams
typically traveled 20 miles in five hours, for an average of four miles
per hour (Harmon 147). Robinson wrote that four miles an hour was a common “dog
trot”, but he also noted that extraordinary distances were sometimes
obtained. He cited an instance in which the driver of a mail-sledge
between Fort Garry and Pembina made the round trip of one hundred thirty
five miles in a single night, with the same team of dogs. ( Robinson
228)
Perhaps the most impressive feat of historical dog drivers was the
delivery of the annual Winter Express which reliably carried the
important news of the trade from Athabasca to Lake Superior each
winter. According to Roderic Mackenzie, the first winter express left
Fort Chipewyan on October 1, 1798 and arrived at Fort William on May 17,
1799.(Innis 245) As they gained experience the teams carrying the express were
able to reduce the transit time considerably. Word of the amalgamation
of the XY and Northwest companies reached Alexander Henry at Lower Red
River on January 1st, 1805, only 56 days after it had been
signed. Harmon, at Ft. Alexandria received the news on February 8.(Innis
245)
On July 3, 1806 McGillivray issued a memo intended to regulate the route
and schedule of the winter express. According to that memo the express
was to leave Peace River on January 3, 1807, Isle a la Crosse on January
12th and Fort Augustus on the 24th with the
expectation that the three teams would meet at Fort Vermillion on or
before January 30th. From Ft. Vermillion the express was
expected to be back on the trail February 1s ultimately being
delivered to it’s final destination in April.(Innis 245) Although twice the
distance expected of most freight teams, 40 miles per day was not
unusual for the hard running men and dogs assigned to carry the winter
packet.( Bush 70)
As winter wore on into spring the changing conditions associated with
longer days and warmer weather required a change in the dog-sledge
traveler’s routine; they worked the graveyard shift. On March 14th,.
1804 Alexander Henry the Younger recorded, “We returned home,
traveling in the night;at this season we prefer always to do so, to
prevent sore eyes, and to take advantage of the frost; the dogs travel
much better than in the daytime, when the snow is soft and they are soon
fatigued.”(Henry 239) Sixty years later John McDougall was continuing the
night-shift tradition. “As the days grew warmer, we who were
handling dogs had to travel most of the time in the night, as then the
snow and track were frozen. While the snow lasted we slept and rested
during the warm hours of the day, and in the cool of the morning and
evening, and all night long, we kept at work transporting our materials
to the site of the new mission. The night-work, the glare or reflection
of the snow, both by sun and moonlight; the subsidence of the snow on
either side of the road, causing constant upsetting of sleds; the
melting of the snow, making your feet wet and sloppy almost all the
time; then the pulling, and pushing, and lifting, and walking, and
running – these were the inevitable experiences.”(McDougall 43-44)
The End of the Trail:
It wasn’t
until the snow finally melted off and the ice broke up on the rivers
that the hard running sledge dogs and their drivers could expect a long
rest. For many of the dogs that rest would last through eternity. The
combination of hard work in harsh conditions, brutal treatment and
inadequate feed had predictable results. Artist Paul Kane described the
typical “retirement” of most sledge-dogs when he wrote, “Only trains
made up of exceptional dogs last more than a couple of seasons, and once
their usefulness is passed the poor brutes are turned loose to seek a
living where those for whom food is provided are more frequently hungry
than satisfied. Their vagrancy is usually short-lived – death by
starvation or freezing come speedily to their relief.”(P. Kane
100-105)
As we reach the end of any trail, it’s natural to reflect upon the
experiences of the journey. In March 1820, while recovering from a two
month long journey by dog sledge from Cumberland House to Fort
Chipewyan, Captain John Franklin recorded his reflections of a long,
arduous journey by dog sledge: “Thus has terminated a winter’s
journey of eight hundred and fifty-seven miles, in the progress of which
there has been a great intermixture of agreeable and disagreeable
circumstances. Could the amount of each be balanced, I suspect the
latter would much preponderate; and amongst these the initiation into
the practice of walking in snow-shoes must be considered as prominent.
The suffering it occasions can be but faintly imagined by a person who
thinks upon the inconvenience of marching with a weight of between two
and three pounds constantly attached to galled feet, and swelled ancles
[sic]. The next evil is being constantly exposed to witness the wanton
and unnecessary cruelty of the men to their dogs, especially those of
the Canadians, who beat them unmercifully, and habitually vent on them
the most dreadful and disgusting imprecations. There are other
inconveniences which though keenly felt during the day’s journey are
speedily forgotten, when stretched out in the encampment before a large
fire, you enjoy the social mirth of your companions, who usually pass
the evening in recounting their former feats in travelling.” (Franklin 140-141)
Perhaps
some day you and I can also stretch out before a large fire and pass the
evening recounting our own former feats in travelling, somewhere On
The Trail…….
Swanny.
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