300 Knud Rasmüssen. 



source of strength, whereas a whip, particularly in the hand of a novice, 

 may spoil a team altogether in the course of a few days. The aim of 

 a good driver is to get his team to work by encouraging shouts, a 

 sort of hypnotic suggestion of forward progress, by which his will- 

 power is conducted to their brains, until they cheerfully forge ahead 

 all day because he wills it so. Once he falls back upon the whip alone, 

 the game is up; for when the natural willingness of the beast has 

 been thrashed out of its body, no lash in the world has power to bring 

 it back. 



All our dogs had the saw-points of the large fangs removed, 

 in the manner customary among the Eskimos of the polar regions. 

 This is done while the dogs are still quite young, and their teeth 

 comparatively soft. The saw-points of the four fangs are filed off with 

 an ordinary file. The object of this is to prevent them from eating 

 their traces and harness, a thing dogs often do without being actually 

 hungry. On long journeys, where such gear cannot be continually 

 renewed, the operation is absolutely necessary; the dogs can eat as 

 well as ever, as it does not prevent them from masticating their food, 

 but only from gnawing through their harness. The filing takes only a 

 couple of minutes; it is of course in itself an unpleasant thing to do, 

 and is at any rate painful at the moment. Anyone who has ever had 

 anything to do with Eskimo dogs, however, will at once realise that 

 it saves the animals countless thrashings in the long run. Times out 

 of number the dogs will, when bound or left to themselves, commit 

 fatal depredations, the resultant punishment being as a rule the least 

 serious part of the matter. Once the above-mentioned slight operation 

 has been made, however, they can be tied up anywhere, either at 

 night when their masters are asleep, or on hunting expeditions when 

 they are away from camp, without the risk of losing gear which could 

 not be replaced. 



Our dogs' food consisted, as already mentioned, of walrus hide, 

 cut into long strips suited to the length and breadth of the sledges, 

 and flayed off in such a manner as to leave a portion of the blubber 

 adhering. When using this fodder on a journey, the usual allowance 

 is 4 — 5 pounds per head every other day, or twice the equivalent 

 weight in pemmican. As this walrus hide is naturally frozen hard, it 

 has to be taken into the snow hut and thawed before it can be cut. 

 This thawing cost us a great deal of time and trouble, generally about 

 four hours each day, the work being taken by pairs in turn, as the 

 dogs were only fed on alternate days. Walrus hide is an excellent 

 "ballast" food, being very indigestible and therefore remaining longer 

 in the stomach. One can, therefore, when the teams are not over- 

 worked, and one is obliged to lie up on account of weather or other 

 circumstances, very well leave them a couple of days without food, 

 provided this is not too often repeated, and they get their square meal 



