276 LABRADOR 



to the bottom, and brought the seal to the surface by the 

 flipper. 



I am inclined to think the half-breed dogs are the clever- 

 est also in memorizing. In 1907 I was driving a distance 

 of seventy miles across country. The path was untravelled 

 for the winter, and was only a direction, not being cut and 

 blazed. The leading dog had been once across the previous 

 year with the doctor. The "going" had then been very 

 bad; with snow and fog, the journey had taken three days. 

 A large part of the journey lay across wide lakes, and then 

 through woods. As neither I nor my friends on the other 

 komatiks had been that way before, we had to leave it 

 to the dog. He went so quickly and so confidently that it 

 grew almost weird to sit behind him. Several times I called 

 a halt to examine the direction and leads. Without a single 

 fault, as far as we knew, he took us across, and we accom- 

 plished the whole journey in twelve hours, including one 

 and a half hours for rest and lunch. 



No amount of dry cold seems to affect the dogs. They 

 sleep out on the coldest nights, frequently choosing the most 

 exposed places, and apparently disdaining any shelter. 

 I have almost had to dig them out from new snow in the 

 mornings. They will stay in the water any length of time 

 in summer when the water is from 40 to 43 F. I have seen 

 a dog mistake the buoy on a net for a stick thrown by his 

 master. He swam out, seized it, and tried to pull it ashore. 

 We went in and had tea, and when we came out again, the 

 dog was still pulling at the buoy. Yet, in winter, the dogs 

 dread the water, and it is very difficult to drive them 

 through it. They seem also to have an instinct telling them 

 when ice cannot be depended on, and it is rare that they 

 fall through, unless being urged on by a driver. 



