THE ESKIMO DOG 247 



tion which tells you beyond the shadow of a doubt 

 that your dog is glad to see you. And never were 

 dogs or men more faithful than these poor brutes. 

 Day after day they struggled back across that awful 

 frozen desert, fighting for their lives and ours!; day 

 after day they worked till the last ounce of work 

 was gone from them, and then fell dead in their 

 tracks without a sound, forty -one of them out of 

 the forty-two with which I left the last cache. Faith- 

 ful, noble servitors, Nupsah, Kardahsu, Komonahpik, 

 Ahgotah, Elingwah, and the rest, never shall I 

 forget you ; and my only consolation is the know- 

 ledge that, like ourselves, you did not suffer pain. 

 The starvation was so gradual, that when at last the 

 end came, and your exhausted limbs refused to move, 

 your bright eyes closed., and your faithful lives went 

 out upon the savage heart of the Great Ice, your end 

 was painless, as our own would have been had it not 

 been for you." A worthy tribute from a man who 

 feels what he writes. 



One other description from the same source de- 

 serves quotation : "In this climb Nalegaksoah, my 

 best dog, and king of the team, received a sprain 

 which resulted in my losing him four days later. 

 Nalegaksoah was a long-limbed brute, quick as a 

 flash of light, with jaws like the grip of fate. A 

 born fighter, he had sunk his gleaming white teeth 

 into the flanks and throat of more than one polar, 

 bear, and in the first struggle for supremacy, when 

 the dogs which I had purchased came together, had, 

 unaided, nearly killed both of the one-eyed hunter's 

 fierce Beardogs. Yet he was one of the most affec- 

 tionate dogs in the team, and an encouraging word 

 or touch of my hand was sufficient to bring his great 



