MAMMALS. 237 



duriug a sledge trip, and at each crack of the whip he woukl turn and catch the leading rope in 

 his teeth in the greatest rage, and woe to the dog that came within reach of him at such times. 

 He was a perfect terror to my guides and before the end of the journey I was forced to kill him. 



They change allegiance very quicklj', and whoever feeds them for a week wins their hearts 

 from all former masters. The instances are extremely rare in which they recognize property 

 of their master's or make any attempt to guard it. 



When at home in the native villages in winter they keep about the entrances of the houses 

 to enjoy the warmth and often fill the long underground passageway. Going in or out of the 

 house one must, in this case, crawl upon hands and knees over a living carpet, but the dogs never 

 show the slightest sign of ill nature, although an occasional yelp tells when one is crowded too 

 closely. The puppies are usually kept indoors and roll about on the tloor with the fur-clad babies in 

 the most fraternal manner. The women take the pups at frequent intervals and pull their limbs 

 in different directions and knead their bodies to render them long-limbed and sinewy, they say. 



There is a peculiar disease, very much akin to the madness of dogs in lower latitudes, which 

 the Eskimo Dog is subject to from Greenland to Bering Sea. A dog bitten by another afflicted 

 with this disease becomes afflicted in the same manner in a few days. I made careful inquiry, but 

 could learn of no authentic case where a person had been bitten, although I heard a vague account 

 of a man having died at Pastolik from the effect of such a bite. The natives have the greatest 

 fear of a dog in this condition, yet appear to have a superstitious dread of killing it. Both young 

 and old dogs have the disease, and I have seen a puppy only a few weeks old afflicted with it in 

 the most nggravated form. As a rule the first symptoms appear within four or five days of the time 

 the bite is received. The dog refuses to eat, becomes restless and irritable, his head soon becomes 

 swollen, and his vision is affected. "He then has alternating periods of stupid quietness and aimless 

 activity. During the latter he runs blindly about, staggering from side to side, but keeping, with 

 apparent dififlculty, a nearly straight course until something turns him. When moving about in 

 this way he bites any dog or other living object in his path and frequently runs blindly into some 

 obstacle from which he starts off in a right angle to his former course. Duriug this time his eyes 

 are fixed and glaring, and his head hangs down as if overweighted, and is slowly swayed from 

 side to side. They are easily avoided, and if kicked out of the way they rarely renew the attack, 

 and never with any spirit. The attack is sometimes preceded by a hemorrhiige from the nose and 

 mouth ; in rare cases a dog recovers, but usually they die in one or two days from the time of the 

 first symptoms. During some seasons great numbers of dogs die from this cause. 



In some parts of the Territory the Eskimo expose their dead close to the village, and the dogs 

 quarrel over the remains, but this disgusting habit is becoming far less common than formei'ly. 



The amount of cold these animals are capable of enduring is remarkable. During a winter 

 sledge journey up an unexplored tributary of the Yukon I was delayed at a village for some days, 

 and during my stay the thermometer ranged from 30 to 35 degrees below zero. Tied to an alder 

 sapling near a hut was a female dog with two pups born the day I arrived. These pups were lying 

 upon the bare snow in the open air without a sign of any shelter from the keen air. One died soon 

 after birth, but the other lived the two following days on its icy bed and was shivering and wrig- 

 gling about when I left the village, while the parent sat beside it shivering and lifting her feet 

 alternately to keep warm. The dog figures largely in northern mythology and is usuallj' endowed 

 with supernatural powers. The Alaskan Eskimo have a firm belief in the transmigration of souls 

 from men to dogs, and i^artieularly intelligent animals are supposed to be inhabited by the spirit of 

 some person. 



Ganis lfpus griseo-albus (Linn.). Gray Wolf (Esk. Ki-ffhlioi-uh). 



This wellkuown animal is found over all of the Alaskan mainland and on some of the 

 most accessible adjoining islands. When game is plentiful the wolves are correspondingly numer- 

 ous and hunt in packs, sometimes numbering fifty or more, but usually containing from six to ten 

 individuals. 



Formerly, before the Eskimo and Indians were generally supplied with firearms, the reindeer 

 were extremely numerous in Alaska and ranged over the country in great herds, always attended 



