CHAPTER XXX. 

 VALUABLE ANIMALS OF THE ARCTIC. 



The North Pole discovery is bringing a new discription of the dog. In 

 an earher chapter were described some of the queer traits of Eskimo canines — 

 the animals to which, more than to anything else, perhaps, Dr. Cook owes 

 his success. Further details of the habits and uses of these animals may here 



be given. 



The dog has probably reached the highest point in his personal, economical 

 and ethical value to man individually, humanity as a whole and the world's 

 progress by the part he has played in polar expeditions. Whether to the South 

 or the North Pole, no voyage has been planned without counting upon the dog as 

 an important if not vital factor, and no explorer has ever returned from his 

 trip into the regions of eternal ice without paying a tribute to the value and 

 devotion of the dog. 



Dr. Fridtjof Nansen is especially enthusiastic in his references to the 

 importance of the dogs in polar expeditions, and in his "Farthest North" is 

 to be found this reference to them, showing not only his appreciation of them 

 as helpers, but his fondness for them as companions : 



*T kept an anxious eye upon the dogs, for fear anything should happen 

 to them, and also to see that they continue in good condition, for all my hopes 

 centered in them. ... I wrote in my diary : Tn the afternoon one of the 

 black and white puppies had an attack of madness. . . . This makes the 

 fourth that has had a similar attack.' . . . Later I wrote : 'Another of 

 the puppies died in the forenoon from one of these mysterious attacks, and 

 I cannot conceal from myself that I take it greatly to heart, and feel low spirited 

 about it, I have been so used to these small polar creatures living their sorrow- 

 less life on deck, romping and playing around us from morning to evening, 

 and a little of the night as well. I can watch them with pleasure by the 

 hour together, or play with them as with little children, have a game at hide 

 and seek with them around the skylight, the while they are beside themselves 

 with glee. 



