Spitz was on another team, not Balto's. I got in touch with BaltoSeppala, and he told me this:
Quote:
TEAM MEMBERS KNOWN, BY NAME (out of an original twelve dogs): Balto, Fox, Sye, Old Moctoc, Alaska Slim, Tillie, and Billy.
BREED: Only Balto's breed is known for certain...he was a purebred Siberian husky. The others probably were too...but there could easily have been Alaskan huskies and other mixed breeds in there.
AGE: Only Balto's age is known ALMOST for certain...most records state that he was three years old the year of the serum run (1925). We also know that Balto was the youngest, and Old Moctoc was the oldest.
SEX: All except Tillie were male.
Again, things such as eye color, coat color and markings, position in the team (or the revised team that went to the U.S.)...those are impossible to tell. The photos of them are all in black and white, and most of the photos focus on Balto and Fox (who were both varying degrees of black and white themselves).
The word "musher" is a legitimate term used happily by modern (and old) drivers of sled teams. The origin of the word (and it's base, "mush") is unclear, but it is believed to come from the French word "marche" (pronouced "marsh"), which means "walk", "step", or "march". However, mushers never say "mush" to their dogs. They say things like "hike", "hike up", "let's go" or "all right".
I hope that helps as well
Here is BaltoSeppala's email adress if you wish to talk more about it
[email protected] It made it a lot easier for me to find this info for you because of him, so I'm sure who would like to hear your thanks!
