160 SLED-DOGS OF THE NORTH TRAILS 



devoured in ravenous, hasty gulps, while the 

 strange dogs pounce in now and again to try and 

 steal from the rightful owners, the while emit- 

 ting fierce snarls and teeth-gnashings with 

 thought to overawe the one assailed. But the 

 Indians watch with their poles, and lay about 

 them whenever a row arises ; and growls and 

 sounds of fierce battle are immediately succeeded 

 by the sharp yelp of a beaten dog — then peace. 

 Sometimes a dog carries his fish into shallow 

 water away from the others and tears it asunder 

 with head under water ; finally seeking below 

 the surface to be quite assured that no bits have 

 been overlooked. In barely a minute the repast is 

 over, so powerful are the wolf- jaws of those animals, 

 so great their ravenous haste to devour their prey. 

 Everywhere in the North native laws of man 

 and beast are stern, even merciless ; the outcome, 

 perhaps, of living half the year face to face with 

 the powerful elements of winter, eternally fight- 

 ing for an existence within the zone of the 

 greatest counterforces of life to be met with in 

 the whole wide world. Thus it appears, at first 

 sight, brutal to a stranger to witness the Indians 

 punish their dogs on the slightest provocation, 

 and it is brutal in a delicate sense, but not so in 

 the mind of Indian or dog, for both are of a 

 vigorous outdoor world, and of primitive hardi- 

 hood. Indians have full experience of sled-dogs. 

 They are masters of the situation ; were their 

 dogs allowed to run unchecked all summer, or be 

 humoured by pampering kindness, they would 

 be useless as sled-dogs when the snows came. 

 Hard blows teach them always to respect the 



