THE RAMSAY SIBERIANS
"I did not feel half so bad, did you, 'Scotty,' when Fay Dalzene beat us with that great team of his and Russ Bowen's? For after all they were our type of dog, and justified our faith in the Alaskans."
But no one year's result, nor the accumulated result of several years, could settle the question of supremacy between the two breeds; and so the smouldering rivalry continued and was fanned into a hot flame each season just before the Solomon Derby.
"You'll have a lot of able rivals, if the immense number of speedy teams I see in the streets means anything," was the Big Man's comment one evening when the Woman, after a fast drive, was boasting of the marked improvement in the team work of their entry.
"'Scotty' says he's glad of it; the more teams that go into racing the higher the standard in Nome. There has never been a time since the camp started when there have been so many efficient dogs as now; and it's just because the people are learning that the only way you can have good dogs is to give them good care. When an Eskimo gets together a racing team, and an excellent one at that, it begins to look like a general reform. Don't you remember when practically all of the natives used to force puppies, who were far too young to be driven at all, to draw the entire family in a sled that was already overflowing with household goods?"
"Yes, at one time you could certainly tell an Eskimo team as far as you could see it by the gait of the wretched, mangy beasts, that always appeared to be in the last stages of exhaustion."
"And there's really a vast improvement in the freighting teams as well; for so many dogs that do not quite make the racing teams become freighters and show the results of their breeding and training there. In fact," enthusiastically, "I am sure that dog racing has been an enormous benefit to Nome in every way. Stefansson told me himself that never in his experience, and it has been wide, had he found such dogs as those 'Scotty' bought for their Canadian Arctic Expedition. And I believe," with conviction, "it is because Nome dogs, through the races, are acknowledged to be the best in all the North—for both sport and work."
The Big Man smiled, and suggested, banteringly, that she embody those views into form for the benefit of Congress.
The Woman looked rather puzzled. "Congress?" she demanded; "and why Congress?"