NO. 1405. 3fAMMALS OF NORTHWEST TERRITORIES— MACFARLANE. 695 



New Caledonia Di.stvict, British Cohunbia. usually scuds in from 40 

 to l!iO wolf skins annually, fully three-fourths of which Ix'lono- to 

 Canix latnoix. 



ESKIMO DOG. 



Canis fain iliarls horeuiix ( Desniarest) . 



The Eskimos make use of this indispensable animal for traveling 

 during the winter season, and in summer it rendei's nmch assistance 

 in tracking their boats (umiaks) upstream, on the Mackenzie, Peel, 

 Anderson, and other arctic rivers. These boats are manned by women, 

 and are alwa3\s steered l)y an elderly man. When tracking on the 

 beach, the woman is attached to the cord hauling line next to the ])ow 

 of the luniak, then follow at intervals, similarly harnessed thereto, 

 from four to six dogs, who with their leader go forward or halt at the 

 call of their driver mistress. Nearly all of the hauling dogs used by 

 the company at Fort Anderson were obtained from the Eskimos. 



Early in the month of February, 1864, a very virulent and fatal 

 form of distemper broke out among the post and native dogs, and, in 

 a short time, it carried otf about three-fourths of their number; but as 

 there was still much work to l)e doni^ in the way of transport of outfit 

 and returns between the Anderson and Fort Good Hope, besides the 

 hauling of fresh venison from the camp of the fort hunter for the spring 

 and summer use of the establishment, we had to ])e constantly on the 

 lookout to purchase as many dogs as could ))e spared b}^ visiting Indi- 

 ans and Eskimos, to replace our heavy weekly losses. The distemper 

 did not much abate until Mav, when it ceased almost as suddenly as 

 it had appeared; but during the three and one-half months of its 

 prevalence, the company lost no less than sixty-tive sleigh dogs at 

 Fort Anderson, while the total native losses must have been very 

 considerable. It was remarked at the time that bloodless fights 

 between healthy and afi'ected animals resulted in no injur}' to the for- 

 mer, but when the fight was hard and bloody the disease was thereby 

 coumiunicated and the l)itten dog soon fell a victim to it. Compar- 

 ativeh' few ever recovered. Most of the attacked animals became 

 very quarrelsome and some quite ferocious, while a few fled and died 

 quietly in the neighboring woods, or after traveling a distance of from 

 5 to 15 miles. In course of a residence of over thirty years in the 

 districts of Mackenzie River and Athabasca, I have known distemper 

 to occur on difi^'erent occasions at several trading posts in both, and 

 alwa3's with fatal results to the dogs, but this Anderson epidemic was, 

 I think, one of the very worst ever experienced in the far north. I 

 find that Sir (reorge Nares, when on his polar expedition of 1875-76, 

 long after the foregoing was written, lost quite a number of his Eskimo 

 dogs by distemper in his winter quarters in latitude 82^ north. 

 Rewrites that the "first observed symptoms thereof in an animal 



