FETCH OR A 505 



and I were struck with the general strong resemblance in 

 them to the so-called Pomeranians, And this seems to 

 me to make way for a possibility in regard to Erman's 

 statement. If, as Erman says (' Travels in Siberia,' 

 p. 12), that the inhabitants — Samaites — of a certain 

 district in Pomerania — viz., Samagitia — are to be 

 reckoned * among the branches of the widely-spread 

 Finnish race ' the above-mentioned striking resemblance 

 between the Samoyede dogs and the so-called Pomeranian 

 breed is worthy of note. Again, they resemble the 

 Eskimo dogs, which, however, are, I believe, most usually 

 black. A bitch and three puppies which I saw in 1872 

 in the Zoological Gardens at St. Petersbourg, and which 

 were true Eskimo dogs, were of this uniform black 

 colour. So much, then, for the dogs. Let us return 

 to our muttons, or venison. 



We arrived in good time to see the lassoing. The two 

 brothers were the principal performers, and a third 

 Samoyede also assisted, while the Kussian owner came in 

 and bound the legs and assisted in throwing the deer over 

 on their sides, doing this, however, in a different fashion 

 from the Samoyedes, and sometimes requiring the assist- 

 ance of the latter. 



The lassoer took a coil of the lasso, which is about a 

 hundred feet in length, in his left hand, and the larger 

 coil in his right, and was driven in his sledge after the 

 herd of deer. On approaching near to them he jumped 

 off the sledge and ran to intercept them as they passed, 

 and singling out an animal, known by the marks of 

 proprietorship on the sides, but more generally on the 

 ears, he cast the noose and coil from his right hand with 

 an underhand throw (most resembling a jerky round- 

 hand ball in cricket), and generally at the first attempt 

 lassoed the deer by the horns, or, when they w^ere hornless, 

 round the hind-legs. Sometimes the hornless deer 



