280 LABRADOR 



dogs showed no signs of slacking when we drew up." With 

 a half-breed team of only seven dogs, I have myself travelled 

 seventy miles a day over a hilly country, but there were only 

 two hundred and fifty pounds on the komatik. On this 

 journey there was time allowed for midday rest for lunch 

 and the boiling of the kettle. 



The Eskimo dog never barks. But he howls exactly 

 like a wolf, in sitting posture with the head upturned. 

 One dog will start every dog in ear-shot. This keeps a 

 traveller awake, and so the people have invented many 

 charms, one of which consists in seizing the band of your 

 shirt in your teeth and chewing it till the noise stops. 



During twenty years we have known of no cases of hy- 

 datid cysts due to the dangerous form of tapeworm such 

 as is transmitted by dogs in Greenland. Indeed, even dis- 

 temper and mange are very rare among Eskimo dogs. 

 Though every family keeps half a dozen at least, not a single 

 case of hydrophobia has been known. 



The great beauty of a dog-team is that it seems to banish 

 all conventionalities. You can go anywhere and every- 

 where with no roads, no hedges, no walls, no restrictions 

 but your own will; and that will, without rein or bridle, 

 you make your dog's will. Dogs can carry you up almost 

 the steepest snow slope and down again in safety. They 

 do not slip or sink in, and if they fall over even a high cliff 

 in the winter, they are very rarely hurt. They seem to 

 understand what you say, and so form a far better com- 

 panion than a horse. They are automobiles which need no 

 handling of their machinery. They enjoy travelling almost 

 more than their masters enjoy it. They learn to love you 

 as only a dog will, and if it were not for their occasional out- 



