Table of Contents
*
Featured Inuit Dog Owner: Ken MacRury, Part 1
*
Remembering Niya
*
Page from the Behaviour Notebook: Bishop and Tunaq
*
Antarctic Vignettes
*
On Managing ISD Aggression
*
The Qitdlarssuaq Chronicles, Part 3
*
News Briefs:
Inuit Dog Thesis Back in Print
Nunavut Quest 2003 Report
Article in Mushing Magazine
Possible Smithsonian Magazine Story
*
Product Review: Dismutase
*
Tip for the Trail: Insect Repellents
*
Book Review: The New Guide to Breeding
Old Fashioned Working Dogs
*
Video Review: Stonington Island, Antarctica 1957-58
*
IMHO: The Slippery Slope
Navigating This
Site
Index of articles by subject
Index
of back issues by volume number
Search The
Fan Hitch
Articles
to download and print
Ordering
Ken MacRury's Thesis
Our
comprehensive list of resources
Talk
to The
Fan Hitch
The Fan
Hitch home page
ISDI
home page
Editor: Sue Hamilton
Webmaster: Mark Hamilton
Contents of The Fan Hitch Website and its publications are protected by international copyright laws. No photo, drawing or text may be reproduced in any form without written consent. Webmasters please note: written consent is necessary before linking this site to yours! Please forward requests to Sue Hamilton, 55 Town Line Rd., Harwinton, Connecticut 06791, USA or mail@thefanhitch.org
Stonington Island, Antarctica 1957-58
narrated by Peter Gibbs
reviewed by Geneviève Montcombroux
Do you want a glimpse of Inuit Dogs in Antarctica as they were, during the heyday of sled transportation? Do you wish to see Inuit Dogs as they eagerly prepare to embark on a seal hunt, or greeting people in their typically enthusiastic manner? All this and more can be found in the video produced from footage in the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) archives.
Caveat: The film segments are dated. Don't expect the quality you are used to with today's cutting edge technology. The color comes and goes, the tracking leaves something to be desired. But the dogs are magnificent!
The scenery is breathtaking and, when the color stays put, you'll see some magnificent sunset shots of ice and mountains. At times the Antarctic sky is of such an intense azure clarity one has the urge to press for a ban on polluting automobiles and belching factory chimneys to return our skies to that pristine blue.
Peter Gibbs introduces the dogs individually with some good shots of their physique, and huge lolling tongues. Images of dogs hauling the heavy Nansen sleds are plentiful, and there is also a detailed view of the famed pyramid tent.
Watching the video unfold is like seeing Ken Parson's memoire, Antarctica: "...to a lonely land I know." brought to life. The BAS members who went to Antarctica must all have been poets at heart. Whether in Ken's lyrical prose or in the artistic camera angles, they perfectly capture the rugged poetry of Antarctica.
What caught my attention in the video and made me smile was how the lead team, while crossing an unobstructed expanse of sea ice, broke not a straight trail but a serpentine one. Now, I'll feel much better when on lake ice I tell my team to go straight and they wind all over the place. It's in the genes!
The 30 minute video is now available in VHS format, either NTSC or PAL, at (US) $25.00 + $5.00 s/h from Geneviève Montcombroux, ISDI, Box 206, Inwood, MB R0C 1P0 Canada, toadhall@mts.net. It will also soon be available as a DVD, price to be announced on the ISD web site. Proceeds go to the "Husky Pen" in Cyprus.
Peter Gibbs did surveying in Antarctica in 1956, traveling by dog team. He is now semi-retired to Cyprus where he actively supports the local animal charity with its homeless dogs shelter, especially the building of the "Husky Pen", a component of the new Paws Dog Shelter. Ed.