Mi'-i'i'ocn.] DOGS AND DRIVING. 3r)9 



back oil the sled and drai;' l)ack on the liaincss till the (.mmi .•omcs to 

 a lialt. 



The leader, who is usually a woman or child sonictinics j;uidfsllic 

 team by a Hue attached to the trace, and lacul. Kay says lie has s<'en 

 them, when traveling in the interior, tie a piece of blubber or meat on 

 the end of a string and drag it on the snow Just ahead of the leader. 

 The natives seldom ride on the sledge except with a light load on a 

 smooth road. A few old and decrepit people like Yu'ksiua always trav- 

 eled on sledges between the villages, and tlu^ people who came down 

 with empty sledges for provisions from the whaling caini), always rode 

 on the well beaten trail where the dogs would run without leading.' 

 The dog whip so universally employed by the eastern Eskimo, is not 

 used at Point Barrow, but when Lieut. Ray made a whip for driving 

 his team, the natives called it ipirau'ta, a name essentially identical 

 with that used in the east. They especially distinguished Tiiirau'ta, a 

 whip with a lash, from a cudgel, auan'ta. The latter word has also the 

 same meaning in the eastern dialects. 



We saw nothing of the custom of prote(!ting the dogs' feet with seal- 

 skin shoes, so prevalent on the Siberian coast.'^ Curiously enough the 

 only other localities in which the use of this contrivance is mentioned 

 are in the extreme east.-' During the first warm weather in the spring, 

 before the dogs have shed their heavy winter coats, they suffer a great 

 deal from the heat and can go only a short distance without lying down 

 to rest. 



The method of harnessing and driving the dogs varies considerably 

 in different localities. Among the eastern natives the dogs are usually 

 harnessed abreast, each with a separate trace running to the sledge, 

 and the driver generally rides, giriding the dogs with a whip. The 

 leader usually has a longer trace than the rest. The harness used at 

 Fury and Hecla Straits is precisely the same as that at Point Barrow, 

 but in Greenland, according to Dr. Kane, it consists of a "simple breast- 

 strap," with a single trace. The illustration, however, in Rink's Tales 

 and Traditions, opposite p. 'SM, whicli was drawn by a native Green- 

 lander, shows a iiattern of harness similar to that used in Siberia and 

 described by Nordenskiold ' as -made of inch-wide straps of skin, form- 

 ing a neck or shoulder band, united on lioth sides by a strap to a girth, 

 to one side of which the draft strap is fastened." It is a curious fact 

 that the two extremes of the, Eskimo race (for even if the people of Pitle- 

 kaj be Chukchi in blood, they are Eskimo in culture) should use the 

 same pattern of harness, while a different form prevails between them. 

 The Siberians also habitually ride upon the sledges, and use a whip, 

 and on some parts of the coast, at least, harness the dogs abreast. In 



'Compare D.-iU. Alaska, p. 25. 



'See Hooper. Teuts, etc., p. 195, an,l X,.i,lL-liskiukVVeKa, vol. 2, p. SIC, where one oltlie.se .^lioe.s 13 tig. 



