DOWN THE MACKENZIE RIVER 25 



psychological moment — commonly the middle of the fore- 

 noon when the daylight is already clear and when the 

 factor and all the inhabitants of the post have had their 

 breakfast and are ready to come out and watch and wel- 

 come the arriving sledges. 



This is a partial picture of the dog's winter life as I 

 was told about in 1906 and as I have seen it since. Dur- 

 ing winter he has the advantage of being well fed, for 

 his master needs his strength and wants him to appear 

 well. But the Indians have found that a few weeks of 

 ample feeding will put a dog into good condition. During 

 the summer they do no driving and can make no osten- 

 tatious use of their dogs. It is, accordingly, the custom 

 to stop feeding them in the spring and let them rustle 

 for themselves during the summer. The result was that 

 by the time we began our journey down the Athabasca 

 (early June) the dogs had already been starved into 

 /skeletons. They were skulking about everywhere, look- 

 ing for any scrap they might eat. Sometimes they would 

 find a greasy rag, swallow it because it smelt like food, 

 and die in agony because a rag is indigestible and sticks 

 in the intestines. 



Every one has to protect his property, and for that 

 reason a dog is occasionally killed when caught stealing 

 or attempting to steal. So far as dogs are concerned, 

 cruelty is in the air. A maimed dog is a great joke. I 

 remember particularly a white man who had been in the 

 country only three or four years but whose disposition 

 was such that he had taken naturally to the ways of the 

 Indian. It is frequently the case and was so here, that 

 this man was worse than almost any Indian. I have 

 forgotten now what it was that he had in front of his 

 camp but it was something tempting to dogs. He kept 



