MAMMALIA-DOG. 137 



derful sagacity. Where, however, there is no beaten track, the best driver 

 among them makes a terrible circuitous course, as all the Esquimaux roads 

 plainly show ; these generally occupying an extent of six miles, when, with 

 a horse and sledge, the journey would scarcely have amounted to five. On 

 rough ground, as among hummocks of ice, the sledge would be frequently 

 overturned, or altogether stopped, if the driver did not repeatedly get off, 

 and by lifting or drawing it on one side, steer clear of those accidents. At 

 all times, indeed, except on a smooth and well made road, he is pretty con- 

 stantly employed thus with his feet, which, together with his never-ceasing 

 vociferations, and frequent use of the whip, renders the driving of one of 

 these vehicles by no means a pleasant or easy task. When the driver 

 wishes to stop the sledge, he calls out, 'Wo, woa,' exactly as our carters do, 

 but the attention paid to this command depends altogether on his ability to 

 enforce it. If the weight is small and the journey homeward, the dogs are 

 not to be thus delayed ; the driver is therefore obliged to dig his heels into 

 the snow to obstruct their progress, and having thus succeeded in stopping 

 them, he stands up with one leg before the foremost cross-piece of the 

 sledge, till, by means of laying the whip gently over each dog's head, he has 

 made them all lie down. He then takes care not to quit his position, so 

 that, should the dogs set off, he is thrown upon the sledge instead of being 

 left behind by tham. 



"With heavy loads, the dogs draw best with one of their own people, 

 especially a woman, walking a little way ahead ; and in this case, they are 

 sometimes enticed to mend their pace by holding a mitten to the mouth, 

 and then making the motion of cutting it with a knife and throwing it on 

 the snow, when the dogs, mistaking it for meat, hasten forward to pick it 

 up. -The women also entice them from the huts in a similar manner. The 

 rate at which they travel depends, of course, on the weight they have to 

 draw, and the road on which their journey is performed. When the latter 

 is level, and very hard and smooth, constituting what, in other parts of 

 North America, is called ' good sleighing,' six or seven dogs will draw from 

 eight to ten hundred weight, at the rate of seven or eight miles an hour, 

 for several hours together ; and will easily, under these circumstances, per- 

 form a journey of fifty or sixty miles a day. On untrodden snow, five-and- 

 twenty, or thirty miles, would be a good day's journey. The same number 

 of well fed dogs, with a weight of five or six hundred, (that of the sledge in- 

 cluded,) are almost unmanageable, and will, on a smooth road, run any way 

 they please, at the rate of ten miles an hour. The work performed by a 

 greater number of dogs, is, however, by no means in a proportion to this, 

 owing to the imperfect mode already described of employing the strength 

 of these sturdy creatures, and to the more frequent snarling and fighting 

 occasioned by an increase of numbers." 



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