The snow in the mostly untrammeled woods here yesterday was soft, wet, and difficult to walk through in places. However, that snow also was beautifully sculpted and intriguingly shadowed.
While my boots slowly plowed through this white “March mush,” a silly question popped into my mind about dog sleds – does the shouted “Mush!” command to get the dogs and sled going relate to them making mush of the snow? A little research revealed some unexpected information about early colonial America.
Winter dog sleds were used by the French in their North American snowy territories before they lost the land (now mostly Canada) to Britain in the Seven Years War (aka French and Indian War). Those French settlors often used the command “Marche!” to get the dogs going. That unaccented French verb translates into English as “Walk!” and it is pronounced in French approximately as “MAHsh!”
After the British took over the French territories, many of them adopted the French use of dog sleds in winter, but their English accents mangled the French start command into a literal “Mush!”
It also turns out that dog sledders don’t use the command “Mush!” anymore, except perhaps for tourists. It’s too indistinct. They say things such as “Let’s go!” and “OK!”
(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on March 5, 2022.)