Dogs Versus Ponies

In 1911, the British explorer Captain Robert Scott made a fatal decision during the preparations for his journey to the South Pole. He chose the pony as the principal means of haulage, although he had a few dogs as well. The Manchurian ponies were specially purchased in Siberia by one of the team members. Scott insisted on the ponies being white, because he believed they were more Hardy thab brown ponies. But since few Manchurian ponies were white, the dealers were able to demand and get inflated prices for them. Preliminary trips across the Antarctic ice painfully exposed the vulnerability of the ponies. Scott, however, refused to alter his plans. As a dog lover, he also refused to kill and eat dogs. On the drive to the Pole, the ponies were killed one by one to provide meat for both men and dogs. And after the dogs were taken back to the base camp, sledges pulled by men in harness became the only way of shifting equipment and stores. The Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, meanwhile, relying on his experienced dog teams, reached the Pole in December 1911, 34 days ahead of the British expedition. Scott and his three companions all died on the return journey.