THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 427 



A little way south of our hunting camp we had on the south- 

 ward journey cached a whole seal and a quantity of blubber. A 

 polar bear had opened this cache and had eaten all the loose blub- 

 ber and about an eighth of that on the seal, not touching the meat. 

 This is one of the many instances to show that polar bears, when 

 they have a choice, make an entire meal of blubber. I don't think 

 I have ever known them to steal meat if pure fat was available. 



On our arrival at the Bear camp October 30th we heard the 

 ominous news that three of our dogs had died of one of the several 

 contagious diseases that are prevalent in the Arctic. 



The diseases of the arctic dog are mysterious. The only polar 

 authority I have read who claims to understand them is Sverdrup,* 

 and he makes the suggestion that these diseases are always due to 

 lack of care and that well-fed dogs, properly sheltered from the 

 weather, never suffer from them. I have, however, seen dogs die 

 under all sorts of conditions, and dogs of all ages. Some have been 

 fat and others lean, some have been allowed to sleep loose outdoors, 

 others have been kept in special dog barns and still others have 

 been allowed to walk in and out of our houses just as house dogs 

 are in civilization. No remedy ever tried by us has been of avail 

 although we have tried several that have been given as infallible. 

 These range from pure superstition, such as chopping off the end 

 of a dog's tail or cutting his ear, to misunderstandings such as the 

 idea that the disease is due to impurity of blood and that the blood 

 can be purified by a large dose of sulphur. 



The only suggestion I am able to make is that we have never 

 lost dogs that were living entirely on land game and that the dis- 

 ease does not seem to prevail inland. We have, however, lost dogs 

 in the spruce woods inland when they have been living in consider- 

 able part on seal meat brought from the coast. I should suppose, 

 therefore, that there is some connection between the seal and this 

 disease. Certainly not all seal meat can carry this danger to dogs, 

 for then all dogs in the North would die. Apparently this disease 

 results from the eating of specially infected seal meat, as trichinosis 

 originates from infected pork and not from uninfected. 



Neither of our visitors had ever before seen a ship, a wooden 

 house, window glass, stoves, or phonographs. All these I was able 

 partly to explain except the phonograph. Articles of metal, such 

 as knives and cooking pots, interested them most for they not only 

 understood them thoroughly but coveted them as useful in their 

 hunting and housekeeping. I feel sure that had the ship been of- 

 *"New Land," pp. 288 ff. 



