ESQUIMAUX DOG.—Canis familiaris. 
break down in their work from want of nourishment, or if, incited by the pangs of 
hunger, they obey their natural instincts, and make a meal on the provisions which had 
been laid aside for his own use. The savage is ever ingenious in the art of torture, and 
the Esquimaux forms no exception to the rule. 
The poor beasts have been known, when suffering from long-continued hunger, to 
devour their tough leather harness, and, as if excited by the imperfect meal, to fly upon 
the weaker members of the team, and to tear them to pieces. During this paroxysm of 
unrestrained fury, they would have made their masters their first victims, had they not 
been driven back by the sword and the bludgeon. 
In consequence of the evil treatment to which they are subjected, the poor animals 
can have no affection for their cruel tormentors, and are afforded no opportunity for 
developing the mental qualities which they possess in very large degree. When placed 
under the care of a kind master, the Esquimaux Dog is a most affectionate animal, and 
displays considerable reasoning powers. 
The Esquimaux Dog is rather larger than an English pointer Dog, although its true 
size appears to be less than it really is, on account of the comparative shortness of limb. 
Its fur is composed of a long outer covering of coarse hair, three or four inches in 
length, and an inner coating of short, woolly hair, that seems to defend the animal from 
the colds of winter. When the weather begins to wax warm, the wool falls off, and grows 
again as the winter draws near. 
