The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 20, 1898, Page 23

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1898. 23 HUNDREDS OF DOGS BOUND FOR KLONDIKE Goats, Donkeys and Steers Join the| Bow-Wows in Pulling the Pro- cession of Sleds. th half ht so se- d san- | dogs on r in a lt- Nat- o ° ] ® of place are too taking want is a | though it is at| many of the | no man, one ng to seek the north. | gs well, for they | than thirty-six sider that the h dog is $10, to > value of the animal, m $100 to s large. 1 asked t will they stand the climate?” > why they shouldn’t. Got I Look! nd he to . master.” No doubt gs 1ss, with their inherited stand the 1 right. Arctic an- drifts t. Bernard s sent them i travelers. s on the Alps 1 occupation 2 task in store for In the picture- I remember, the ve represented as a little keg of brandy 1eck, with the view ink to any frozen-out picture-books of the Bernard will guise, toil- v-laden sled, ster with the whip, a dreary mountain yw ling sorry for the is almost certain. s, brought up in ous life imo dog. Only will survive the toilsome trudge over | the ice-clad rocks of the Chilkoot Pass, and it is noticeable that most of these dogs are being tdken up by the new The old miner who has served his Alaskan hardship prefers to dispense with a team and to do his own packing. work, but it is more certain. half-trained, unacclimatized dogs are pretty sure to break down; their tender th which | feet will not stand the rough work over | apprenticeship It may be harder the frozen snow, and even the mos carefully made shoes will not preven! lameness. These things, of course, are matters from the heat; his swollen tongue hangs redly from his mouth, and he Ieven lacks energy to reply to a St. t t Bernard on the other side of the fence for argument, and future millionaires | Who is most anxious to do battle. on the deck of the little steamer dis: - A humane bystander finds a bucket cuss the question hotly while waiting | of water and pours it over the poor for the whistle to sound the note o f | creature’s head, whereupon one of the s, v | q kes him severely, be- departure. The dogs, too, are giving |ship’s officers rebu: ! y, \‘er‘it to their opinions pretty freely, and | cause, forsooth, he is wetting the deck. it is a pity that, with our darkened | Ship's officers, when the gold lace is | senses, we cannot translate their views | new on their brass-bound caps, can into readable English. It would seem, | be humorous sometimes, though it is a however, looking at the expression of # | pity their humor does not always take the inmates of the wire-fenced pen, |a kindly turn, and lead them to give that there is a general consensus o opinion as to the undesirability of thi. s | under their charge. Klondike expedition. None of the St. As the hour for sailing grows nearer, Bernards seem to care about going, | more men come hurrying down the though they are too dignified to say { wharf, leading great black and brown much, but the Newfoundlands bark in. dignantly, while the retrievers and set. - | dogs, and one by one they are pitched - | headlong into the already crowded ters and pointers and bird dogs and | pens. The clamor redoubles at the dozens of mixed breeds which nobody | sight of each new arrival, the St. Ber- can describe yel~ in chorus. It is a canine pandemonium and con. - | asm as members of the same clan, but versation is impossible at the after end | the one Great Dane, who seems of the steamer. One fine, big, black | strangely out of place amid this assem- fellow grows so annoyed that, aftes many efforts he leaps the pen and | tains a sulky | stands on the deck outside. The poo: brute has been chained up short, close | Still the dogs are not the only beasts to the engine-room skylight, with the | of draught on board. If you make afternoon sun blazing on his thick | your way ,along the crowded deck to | coat. No wonder he is suffering terribly | the other end of the ship you will find r | blage sof long-haired animals, main- ilence in his place of kylight. r | state upon the half a dozen horses and mules, though these creatures are too commonplace to excite attention. It is the goats which attract general notice. There are seven of them, moored by the horns, and for- tunately, whether by design or lucky accident, there are several crates of cabbages in the immediate vicinity. So the goats placidly munch -the green leaves, while the warm sunlight plays on their long silky hair. They seem ex- ceedingly comfortable, and if they are always to be treated in this way, have no objection to any number of Klon- | dike expeditions. f | proper attention to the dumb brutes | Less intelligent than the dogs, they | have no prevision of the fate which is | in store for them. Their owner, asturdy | countryman, clad in one of the leather | Jackets which seem, judging from the number who wear them, to be consid- | ered the most suitable garment for the | voyage, gazes admiringly at his | charges. nards welcome each other with enthusi.- | “They are the best animals of all for the work,” he remarks in sanguine mood; “they’ll do more than allthedogs put together.” “But how are you going to carry fod- der for them?” I ask. “Oh, goats will eat anything,” he re- plies with the utmost confidence. This answer in his opinion seems to solve the whole problem. They are pro- WHY DO MEN STRIVE TO REACH THE POLE? Important Events That Will Follow When Some Intrepid Explorer Reaches That Goal. HAT is the use of trying to reach the north pole? What is to be gained for mankind? ‘What will you do with the pole when you get it? These are questions which every friend of Arctic exploration called upon to answer. pounded in all seriousness and good faith, and deserve reply in kind. Many men who applaud a Lick or a Yerkes for their liberal endowment of J. F. ROSE-SOLEY. -!great telescopes with which to discover new stars in the stellar universe, says the Review of Reviews, have fallen into the habit of sneering at the men who propose to discover the north pole and thus add tc our knowledge of our own world. Men who rejoice whenever a new fact is learned concerning the heavenly bod- ies or the internal structure or history of our globe have little patience with those who venture into the unknown regions of the north with a view to learning what is there. They forget, perhaps, that this earth was given man for his home, and that the desire to conquer and to know all of it is as in- stinctive as life itself. The results of efforts to explore the great unknown area about the pole may be divided into twc parts: One has to do with the extension of knowledge, with the ascertainment of those facts which build up and broaden and per- fect the sciences; the other caters to love of adventure, to admiration for conquest of difficulties, and certainly these are not the least praiseworthy traits of human nature. To the man who asks, “Can people live about the pole—what can be grown there?” and who thus implies impatience with exploration which does not open up either mines or farms or some productive industry, there is no answer. The same man might ask, Of what use is a poem? He must be permitted to go his way, along with the man who can see no value in dredg- ing the depths of the sea, scaling the heights of mountains, or widening our knowledge of the stars, because in none of these places can wheat or corn be grown or precious metals be mined. Bu. to those who look upon the gar- nering of every new fact concerning our universe as a contribution to the sum of human knowledge, and there- fore to human power and to human happiness, the value of arctic explora- tion is obvious. “Nowhere are more questions to be found for which to seek answers,” wrote Professor George Gerland, the physicist, “than in the polar regions. * * * Man's disposition to make all the earth his home and himself at home everywhere in it is only sharp- ened by the problems offered there and the tendency to go becomes irre- sistible. “The explanation of the glaciation of the northern part of our temperate zone during the ice age, still unfound, is a matter of great importance, for the topography of the land at the present time was brought out and the organic life of the whole earth was modified by it; and it is the general opinion that the solution of the problem is to be found, if it is found, by a study of the polatr regions. “ » * * Man could not refrain from inquiring into the nature and rea- son of these things if he would, and hence he is willingly or unwillingly led to the poles, where he is brought into the closest relations with them and where the explanations of them Fe————--C. d An - - gelus! 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