56 



SECOND DIVISION OF THE 



When the Esquimaux Indian goes in pursuit of the seal, the rein-deer, or 

 the bear, his dogs carry the materials of his temporary hut, and the few 

 necessaries of his simple life ; or, yoked to the sledge, often draw him and 

 his family full sixty miles a-day over the frozen plains of these inhospitable 

 regions. At other times they assist in the chace, and run down and 

 destroy the bear and the rein-deer on land, and the seal on the coast. 



THE ESQUIMAUX DOG. 



Their journeys are often without any certain object ; but, if the dogs 

 scent the deer or the bear, they gallop away in that direction until their 

 prey is within reach of the driver, or they are enabled to assist in destroy- 

 ing their foe. Captain Parry, in his Journal of a Second Voyage for the 

 Discovery of a North-West Passage, gives an amusing account of these ex- 

 peditions. " A number of dogs, varying from six to twelve, are attached 

 to each sledge by means of a single trace, but with no reins. An old and 

 tried dog is placed as the leader, who, in their simple journeys, and when 

 the chace is the object, steadily obeys the voice of the driver sitting in 

 front of the sledge, with a whip long enough to reach the leader. This 

 whip, however, is used as seldom as possible ; for these dogs, although 

 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, and there is a scene of universal 

 confusion, or the dogs double from side to side to avoid the whip, and the 

 traces become entangled, and the safety of the sledge endangered. The 

 carriage must then be stopped, each dog put into his proper place, and the 

 traces re-adjusted. This frequently happens several times in the course 



