The dogs being fed, on an unidentified sledge journey. [1]The Norwegians soon learned the most effective order of running: first Prestrud on ski, then Helmer Hanssen with the lead dog team and steering compass, then Johansen with his team and a second compass, and lastly Amundsen with the third team, a spare compass, and the sledgemeter, a wheel attached to the back of the sledge that measured the distance that had been run.
Amundsen had learned in the Arctic that dogs preferred to have someone ahead of them to follow.
"[Amundsen] had trouble with his dog team," wrote Johansen, "in the end he had to take off his reindeer trousers and ski in shirt and underpants. The temperature was 12 degrees below zero. One can do this sort of thing here, where colds do not exist." By "shirt and underpants" he meant the Netsilik reindeer fur underclothes, which proved to be too warm. The boots, however, "of which so much was expected, turned out to be unusable in the cold. Both Prestrud and I got blisters from them. And at supper today I had to put on kamikks [Eskimo sealskin boots] instead." [2]
"The dogs pull magnificently, and the going on the barrier is ideal," Amundsen wrote. "Cannot understand what the English mean when they say that dogs cannot be used here." [3]
Notes:
[1] Roald Amundsen Bildearkiv, Nasjonalbiblioteket.
[2] Hjalmar Johansen, diary, 11 February, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.348.
[3] Roald Amundsen, diary, 11 February, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Scott and Amundsen (New York : Putnam, 1980, c1979), p.347.
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