68 



The average dog team is composed of from six to eight dogs. 

 The leader is usually a female. A mother with her grown pups 

 makes an unrivalled team. 



The words of command used in northern Labrador are : 

 huit, go ahead, aw, stop, 



auq, to the right, r-r-r (trilled r), to the left. 

 The whites and half-breeds use a corruption of the Eskimo 

 words. 



The Labrador "husky" dog is not different in appearance 

 from the Alaskan "malemute." The regulation marking of the 

 latter, black with a white tipped tail, is not common in Labrador. 

 The pure white strain, seen in Labrador and Ungava, on the other 

 hand, is rather rare in Alaska. The greyish "wolf" colour is 

 present everywhere. Outside of colour, the Labrador dogs do 

 not appear to represent any variation from their congeners 

 spread over the 5,000 miles of the Eskimo coast-line. They are 

 a little hungrier and fiercer than the Alaskan dogs, probably 

 from not being so regularly fed. In summer they are placed on 

 an island, where, except for chance visits, they have to obtain 

 their own food. The islands abound in mice, and capelin and 

 other fish are thrown up by the tide. 



THE UMIAK. 



The use of the umiak (Plate XV c) or "woman's boat," has 

 been entirely abandoned on the east coast of Labrador. It was 

 in use among the heathen tribe at Nachvak, until the Hudson's 

 Bay Company post at that point was abandoned, and they were 

 consolidated with the Mission Eskimo. It is still in use in Wake- 

 ham bay, an isolated post on the west coast of Ungava bay. 

 A picture of Low's 1 gives a good idea of the comparative size of 

 the umiak and the kayak. The immense load of people and 

 supplies that these large, roomy, flat-bottomed boats will carry 

 is almost unbelievable. They will hardly tip over, owing to 

 their flat bottom, and are very seaworthy. In sailing they do 

 not compare favourably with a whale boat, owing to their 

 rather clumsy shape, but the Eskimo make voyages of 100 to 

 200 miles in them quite easily. 



1 See Low, The Cruise of the Neptune, p. 64. 



