36 THE CHILDREN OF THE COLD. 



in times of want and starvation in that 

 terrible country of cold, the length of 

 time these poor dogs will go without 

 food seems beyond belief. 



I once had a team of nineteen fat 

 Eskimo dogs that went six or seven days 

 between meals for three consecutive feedr 

 ings before they reached the journey's 

 end and good food ; and, although they 

 all looked very thin, and were, no doubt, 

 very weak, none of them died ; and yet 

 they had been traveling and dragging a 

 heavy sledge for a great part of the' 

 time. Other travelers among the Eskimo 

 have given equally wonderful accounts of 

 their powers of fasting. The Eskimo 

 have many times of want and depriva- 

 tion, and then their poor dogs must 

 suffer very much. But when they are 

 fed every other day on good fat walrus 



