60 BY ESKIMO DOG-SLED 



that I had given them, so they were content 

 to wait a while. During their tedious un- 

 ravelling of the knotted harness the other 

 sleds began to come up, and soon the whole 

 fourteen were assembled at Parkavik. We 

 waited until all were ready, for the very 

 simple reason that if we had started no exer- 

 tions could have kept the other teams still, 

 and so it came about that the starting again 

 was by way of being an imposing spectacle. 

 My sled, with the drivers swelling with pride, 

 headed the procession along the frozen fiord, 

 and the others followed at proper intervals. 



Not the least interesting part of this unique 

 sight was the shadow : the sun was just up, 

 and there was a marvellous string of spider- 

 legged dogs and top-heavy sleds and weird, 

 thin men sharply outlined on the pink snow. 



K is only necessary to spend a day on a 

 sled behind an ordinary team of Eskimo dogs, 

 to get to know something of the ways of those 

 queer brutes. There was no quietness about 

 that run to Hebron, for all the drivers seemed 

 to be shouting all the time. They seem to 

 think that the dogs must be told constantly 

 w r hat they are to do, and so a driver's work is 

 a constant repetition of such orders as " Ouk- 

 ouk-ouk " (go to the right), " Ra-ra-ra " (to 

 the left), or " Huit-huit-hu-eet " (go straight 



