THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 641 



is at once set upon and whipped or killed, unless his own com- 

 panions rush to his assistance, in which case a dreadful fight takes 

 place, that hardly terminates before many dos;s are fairly cut to 



/ ~ * 



pieces, for it is quite impossible to separate them even though 

 clubs be used with cruel effect. 



A pack of ten dogs will draw a load of 1,000 pounds ninety 

 miles a day and show little signs of fatigue. Before starting on 

 a long journey, they are kept without food for three or four 

 days, until they are ravenously hungry and extremely gaunt, and 

 while traveling they are fed sparingly on frozen meat which is 

 bolted without chewing. When in flesh or his hunger is satisfied, 

 the Esquimau dog is very lazy and becomes easily fatigued, 

 though more sociable. It is astonishing the amount and char- 

 acter of food they will eat when voraciously hungry. In one 

 respect they are like an ostrich, being ready to swallow anything 

 that may be thrown to them. Dr. Kane, while fast bound in the 

 ice near Cape Grinnell, makes the following entry in his journal 

 respecting the voracity of his dogs : 



" More bother with these wretched dogs ; worse than a street 

 of Constantinople emptied upon our decks ; the unruly, thieving, 

 wild-beast pack ! Not a bear's paw, or an Esquimau cranium, or 

 basket of mosses, or any specimen whatever, can leave your hands 

 fora moment without their making a rush at it, and, after a 

 yelping scramble, swallowing it at a gulp, I have seen them at- 

 tempt a whole feather-bed ; and here, this very morning, one of 

 my Karsuk brutes has eaten up two entire birds'-nests which I 

 had just before gathered from the rocks ; feather*, tilth, pebbles, 

 and moss a peckful at the least. When we reach a floe, or 

 berg, or temporary harbor, they start out in a body, neither voice 

 nor lash restraining them, and scamper off like a drove of hogs 

 in an Illinois oak-opening." 



Though active under the excitement of hunger, Esquimau 

 dogs are not driven merely by words, but must be industriously 

 stimulated with a whip, in the handling of which a novice would 

 punish himself more than the dogs. Kane describes it as fol- 

 lows : 



41 



