VALUABLE ANIMALS OF THE ARCTIC 295 



is not always the strongest, but usually the most unscrupulous bully and tyrant. 

 They are monogamous in their mating, and interference with their domestic 

 relations on the part of an outside dog results immediately in a fight to the 

 death. 



Six Eskimo dogs can pull a load of eight hundred pounds seven miles in 

 an hour. Kane was carried for seven hundred miles at the rate of fifty-seven 

 miles a day. The record speed of dogs pulling a load was attained in the case 

 of the rescue of a sailor in Lieutenant Schwatka's expedition. 



"He was seen at a distance of ten miles across an ice covered bay, just at 

 nightfall," relates "The New Book of the Dog." "To leave him there would 

 involve his death from frost bite, and two Eskimo natives, with a double team 

 of forty dogs, were sent to fetch him. The runners were 'iced' and the men 

 armed with knives to cut adrift any dog that might lose his footing, for there 

 was no stopping when once started. They did the ten miles in twenty-two and 

 one-half minutes." 



The Eskimo dog is largely used in the Northwest, but a halfbreed is con- 

 sidered better. Many are a cross between the Eskimo and the wolf, but the 

 superlative dog for hauling is the offspring of the Eskimo and what is known 

 in Canada as the staghound. For speed, strength and staying power these are 

 second to none. Many breeds, however, are employed, including the pure New- 

 foundland, which is too heavy and clumsy for winter traveling. The Hare 

 Indian, or McKenzie River dog, was formerly used, and even the greyhound 



and spaniel. 



The "huskies," so frequently referred to in Jack London's "Call of the 

 Wild," are of the Eskimo and wolf cross, and the "geddies" are of like origin, 

 bred specially by the Indians for hauling purposes. These last are willing 

 workers, declares "The New Book of the Dog," but vicious brutes, who fight 

 their way through summers of semi-starvation and winters of ill treatment, 

 hunger and the lash. 



In the Hudson Bay territory four huskies are harnessed to the sled in 

 tandem order, the harness consisting of saddles, collars and traces. The leader, 

 or "foregoer," sets the pace, and changes his course at a word from the driver, 

 who, whatever his nationality, speaks to his team in the patois of the- North. 

 "Hu !" and "choic !" anglicized to "you !" and "chaw !" are the words neces- 

 sary to turn the foregoer to the right or left. The team is started by "mush!" 

 a corruption of the French word "marche," meaning "march." The sled or 

 steer dog is the heaviest and strongest of the team, trained to swing the ten 

 foot long sled away from any obstacle. 



