234 DOG-DRIVING. Chap. XIV. 



fore far too small for heavy work ; " Darky " and " Missy " 

 were mere pups ; and last of all came the two wretched 

 starvelings, reared in the winter, " Foxey " and " Dolly." 

 Each dog had its own harness, formed of strips of canvas, 

 and was attached to the sledge by a single trace 12 feet 

 long. None of them had ever been yoked before, and the 

 amount of cunning and perversity they displayed to avoid 

 both the whip and the work was quite astonishing. They 

 bit through their traces, and hid away under the sledge, or 

 leaped over one another's backs, so as to get into the middle 

 of the team out of the way of my whip, until the traces 

 became plaited up, and the dogs were almost knotted 

 together ; the consequence was I had to halt every few 

 minutes, pull off my mitts, and, at the risk of frozen 

 fingers, disentangle the lines. I persevered, however, and, 

 without breaking any of their bones, succeeded in getting 

 a surprising amount of work out of them. Their strength 

 and endurance are astonishing. When an Esquimaux 

 dog feels the whip, he usually bites his neighbour; the 

 bite is passed along to the next, and a general fight and 

 howling match ensues ; then the driver lays about him with 

 the whip-handle until order is restored. Hobson drove his 

 own dog-sledge likewise, and as long as we were together, 

 we helped each other out of difficulties ; and they were 

 frequently occurring, for, apart from those I have above 

 mentioned, directly a dog-sledge is stopped by a hummock, 

 or sticks fast in deep snow, the dogs, instead of exerting 

 themselves, lie down, looking perfectly delighted at the cir- 

 cumstance, and the driver has to extricate the sledge with a 

 hearty, one, two, three haul ! and apply no trifling persua- 

 sion to set his canine team in motion again. 



Having searched the east shore of this land for 7 or 8 miles 

 farther north, we crossed over into Barrow's Inlet, and spent a 

 day in its examination, but not a trace of natives was met with. 



