ing of fifteen to twenty dogs, each carrying a thirty-pound pack. A fifteen-dog train could haul $122,400 worth of gold. During the summer, the dog trains operated twenty-four hours a day, six days a week. During the winter, dog punchers, as the drivers of the dog teams were called, worked eight hours a day, averaging twenty miles with a load of twelve hundred pounds.
             Various breeds of dog were used for freighting in the Yukon. The most sought-after were the native breeds the husky, the malamute, and the Siwash, or Indian dog. Though they were often bad-tempered, giving rise to vicious dog fights, these native dogs were well suited to the task and to the environment, being strong in the back and legs as well as having thick outer and inner coats of hair, and paws that were well furred between the pads and toes. Native dogs also showed an incredible talent for scavenging, a skill that was crucial for survival in the frozen Yukon. During the gold rush, however, the importing of non-native dogs for sale became a brisk business. In fact, the number of outside dogs far exceeded the number of native breeds in use at this time. These outside dogs did not have the strength and adaptability of the native dogs, but some, like the St. Bernard and the mastiff, were unsurpassed at short-distance hauling.
             On the trail, dogs were fed dried salmon, each dog receiving two pounds of fish each day. They were fed once a day, and always at night. This was done to encourage them to make better time on the trail, as dogs tended to become lazy after feeding.
             Under optimum conditions, a team of five native dogs could pull a sled with a 1,000-pound load a distance of fifteen to twenty-five miles in a single day. Generally, the sled was loaded at the ratio of 160 pounds to each dog. With their heavy fur, over-sweating was a constant problem when
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