THE ESQUIMAUX- Doc. 



473 



enough to reach the leader. This whip, however, is used as seldom as possible ; for these 

 dogs, though tractable, are ferocious, and will endure little correction. When the whip is 

 applied with severity on one, he falls upon and worries his neighbour, and he, in his turn, 

 attacks a third, or the dogs double from side to side to avoid the whip, and the traces 

 become entangled and the safety of the sledge endangered." Youatt remarks : 



"Each of these dogs will draw a weight of 120 pounds over the snow at the rate of 

 seven or eight miles an hour. In summer many of these dogs are used as beasts of burden, 



ESQUIMAUX DOG "SIR JOHN FRANKLIN," PROPERTY OF MR. W. K. TAUNTON. 



and each carries from thirty to forty pounds. They are then much better kept than in the 

 winter, for they have the remains of the whale and sea-calf which their masters disdain to 

 eat. The majority, however, are sent adrift in the summer, and they live on the produce of 

 the chase, or of their constant thievery. The exactness with which the summer being passed 

 each returns to his master, is an admirable proof of sagacity, and frequently of attachment." 



Youatt makes no allusion to the supposed wolfish origin of the Esquimaux dog, which is 

 to be wondered at, as it had already been suggested by Scott that the wolf was, in some 

 degree, responsible for the existence of the Esquimaux dog. It must, therefore, we think, be 

 fairly taken that Youatt did not coincide in the theory, as, had he done so, he would assuredly 

 have mentioned it. The quotation from Captain Parry's remarks is, we think, useful as a 

 connecting link between the earlier and later portions of the century, and there certainly 

 appears to have been but little change in the character of the Esquimaux dog. 

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