THE ESKIMO DOG 149 



deer ; nor is this all : they yoke them to heavily-laden 

 sledges, which with untiring patience these animals will 

 drag from one hunting ground to another. The following 

 extract is from Captain Parry's Journal of a Second Voyage 

 for the Discovery of a North-west Passage : 



' When drawing a sledge, the Dogs have a simple harness 

 of deer or seal skin going round the neck by one bight and 

 another for each of the forelegs, with a single thong leading 

 over the back, and attached to the sledge as a trace. 

 Though they appear at first sight to be huddled together 

 without regard to regularity, there is, in fact, considerable 

 attention paid to their arrangement, particularly in the 

 selection of a dog of peculiar spirit and sagacity, who is 

 allowed by a longer trace to precede the rest as a leader. 



' The leader is usually from eighteen to twenty feet from 

 the fore part of the sledge, and the hindmost dog about half 

 that distance, so that when ten or twelve are running 

 together, several are nearly abreast of each other. The 

 driver sits quite low, on the fore part of the sledge, with his 

 feet overhanging the snow on one side, and having in his 

 hand a whip, of which the handle is eighteen inches, and 

 the lash more than as many feet. 



'Though the Dogs are kept in training entirely by the 

 fear of the whip, and, indeed, without it would soon have 

 their own way, its immediate effect is always detrimental to 

 the draught of the sledge, for not only does the individual 

 that is struck draw back and slacken his trace, but generally 

 turns upon his next neighbour ; and this passing on to the 

 next, occasions a general commotion, accompanied by the 

 usual yelping and showing of the teeth. 



' The Dogs then come together again by degrees, and the 

 draught of the sledge is accelerated ; but even at the best of 

 times there is the constant entanglement of the traces, by 

 the dogs repeatedly doubling under from side to side to 

 avoid the whip, so that after running a few miles the traces 

 always require to be taken off and cleaned.' 



With ' good sleighing ' that is, on good roads ' six or 

 seven dogs will draw from eight to ten hundredweight, at 

 the rate of seven or eight miles an hour, for several hours 

 together.' With a smaller load they will run ten miles an 



