CARNIVORA 229 



are also used in trailing and capturing criminals. Dogs were domesti- 

 cated before the dawn of written history, various breeds having arisen 

 in various parts of the world at remote periods. 



The natives of America possessed several kinds of dogs before the 

 advent of white men on the continent, and used them as food to a 

 considerable extent. 48 White men in the wilderness on many occasions 

 have been glad to get Indian dogs for food. The accounts of the De 

 Soto expedition to the Mississippi and the Lewis and Clark expedi- 

 tion up the Missouri and across the mountains to the Pacific tell of 

 various occasions when they were without food and were supplied with 

 dogs by Indians. The Indians of the Northwest Coast possessed long- 

 haired "dogs with wool-like undercoats, which were sheared closely as 

 sheep are and the product woven into blankets. Some of these blankets 

 are preserved in museums, but the dogs seem to have disappeared. 49 



Before Europeans brought horses, dogs were the only beasts of 

 burden and draft animals owned by the North American Indians. 

 They were much used in harness to drag equipment on the western 

 plains, in following herds of buffalo, and carried loads on their backs, 

 as well, and are still used by both natives and white men in drawing 

 sledges in the Far North. Dog sledges were quite indispensable in the 

 exploration of the Arctic region. It has been but a few years since 

 the whole civilized world was thrilled by a great run of sledge dogs 

 carrying serum to an Alaskan town afflicted with a serious epidemic. 

 Many dogs have also been used for drawing small carts in Belgium 

 and other European countries and elaborate laws were devised to pro- 

 vide for their care and comfort. 50 



An occasional dog acquires vicious habits, kills sheep or game or 

 even attacks human beings. This could be to a great extent avoided 

 if so many dogs were not allowed to roam at will. Real dog-lovers do 

 not claim the right to permit their dogs such liberty, nor would they 

 allow them to run at large, especially at night. It is partly because of 

 this occasional viciousness and partly because there are so many stray 

 dogs, that many municipalities and some states have dog license laws, 

 the license fees providing considerable revenue in the aggregate. For 



48 Henderson and Harrington, Ethnozoology of the Tewa Indians, U. S. Bureau 

 Amer. Ethnology Bull. No. 56, pp. 25-28, 1914, and publications cited in footnotes 

 therein. Allen, Dogs of the American aborigine, Bull. Museum Comp. Zool., LXIII, 



431-517, 1920- 



** Leechman, Fleece-bearing dogs, Nature Magazine, xrv, 177-178, 1929. 



50 Johnson, Dogs as draft animals, Forest and Stream, XLIX, 491-492, 515, 1897; 

 L, 13-14, 1898. 



