UNDER THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 345 



him. As soon as he appears they are all on him. Let 

 him be never so wary, and slink around hummocks to 

 reach the ship unobserved, some one dog sees his head 

 or his tail, gives the signal, and away they go. It is 

 then a question of speed, for if the single dog but 

 reaches his usual sunning or stopping-place he is safe ; 

 for, by some rule always observed, the getting to home 

 base restores him to the full rights of citizenship. The 

 cautious approach, and the great speed on the last 

 stretch, are worthy of much higher intelligence than 

 we usually give to dogs. The care they bestow on each 

 other in distress or trouble, arising from disability, has 

 a marked exhibition in the case of Jack and Snuffy. 

 Snuffy had his nose bitten into in a fight at St. Michael's 

 last summer, and in consequence his head is twice the 

 natural size, by swelling and diseased bone. Jack is 

 seemingly Snuffy's brother, and he is devoted to him 

 beyond much human fraternal affection. He stays by 

 Snuffy, cleans him, sees that he is not molested by 

 other dogs, follows him into enemies' camps, leads him 

 through in safety, and guards his retreat. Let Snuffy 

 get a tid-bit, like an old moccasin or. a piece of hide. 

 Jack sees him secure it, stands by him while he chews 

 it, and if he leaves it, chews it for him until he seems 

 to want it again, when it is promptly surrendered. So 

 accustomed have the pack become to this sort of thing, 

 that they permit many liberties with their food which 

 they would resent with a well dog. 



Their cunning is extraordinary. Going out the other 

 night at twelve for meteorological observations, about 

 a dozen of them came around me in great excitement 

 about something or other. Looking around for a cause, 

 I observed a good-sized dog head first in a barrel at an 

 angle, with only his tail and flanks sticking out. He 



