338 Life of Audubon. 



three to five guineas for black and silver fox skins, and 

 others in proportion. In the months of November and 

 December, and indeed until spring, they kill seals in 

 large numbers ; seventeen men belonging to their party 

 killed twenty-five hundred seals once in three days. This 

 great feat was done with short sticks, and each seal was 

 killed with a single blow on the snout, whilst lying on the 

 edges of the floating or field ice. The seals are carried 

 home on sledges drawn by Esquimaux dogs, which are so 

 well trained that, on reaching home, they push the seals 

 from the sledges with their noses, and return to the kil- 

 lers with regular despatch. (This, reader, is hearsay !) 

 At other times the seals are driven into nets, one after 

 another, until the poor animals become so hampered and 

 confined, that they are easily and quickly dispatched with 

 guns. The captain showed me a spot, within a few yards 

 of his log cabin, where last winter he caught six fine large 

 silver-gray foxes. Bears and caraboos abound during 

 winter, and also wolves, hares and porcupines. The 

 wolves are of a dun color, very ferocious and daring ; a 

 pack of thirty followed a man to his cabin, and they have 

 several times killed his dogs at his own door. I was 

 surprised at this, because his dogs were as large as any 

 wolves I have ever seen. These dogs are extremely trac- 

 table, so much so that, when geared into a sledge, the 

 leader immediately starts at the word of command for any 

 given course, and the whole pack gallop off at the rate of 

 seven or eight miles an hour. The Esquimaux dogs howl 

 like wolves, and are not at all like our common dogs. 

 They were extremely gentle, and came to us, and jumped 

 on and caressed us as if we were old acquaintances. They 

 do not take to the water, and 'are fit only for draught and 

 the chase of caraboos ; and they are the only dogs which 

 can at all near the caraboo while running. 



" As soon as winter storms and thick ice close the 



