Abel's two teams, together with an extra dog or two to
fill the place of any that might be injured, numbered eighteen, while
Skipper Ed kept seven. This made a total of twenty-five dogs to be
provided for, and twenty-five big wolf dogs will consume a vast amount
of food during a winter.
So they held a consultation, and Skipper Ed decided that he could do
very well without dogs if Abel would permit him the use of a team now
and again.
"Partner and I have kept dogs only these last two years, anyhow," said
Skipper Ed. "Our hunting and trapping is chiefly inland, and we haven't
much use for them. I don't want to see any of the dogs suffer for the
want of something to eat, and if Partner is willing we'll kill them, and
let you have the carcasses to feed to your teams. What do you say,
Partner?"
"We'll kill them." Jimmy agreed, regretfully.
Abel also decided that it would be wise to reduce the number of his own
dogs to fifteen, and thus the problem was solved.
Winter settled with almost unexampled cold, and with a succession of
fearful storms. It was a winter, too, of awful hardship and privation to
the people of the Coast. The Eskimos to the northward depended chiefly
upon seals for their own living as well as for dog food, and with them,
as with Abel Zachariah and Skipper Ed, the seal hunt was cut off by the
early blizzard, and few seals were killed.
Abel and Skipper Ed, however, relied more largely upon the cod fishing,
and it had been their custom for many years to barter away the fish they
caught to trading schooners which visited them for that purpose at their
fishing places before they returned to winter quarters.
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