BOAS] THE DOG TEAM. 533 



Besides this form of sledge a great number of others are in use. 

 Whenever whales are caught their bone is sawed or cut into large 

 pieces, which are shod with the same material. If large bones are 

 not to be had, a substitute is found in walrus skins or rolls of seal- 

 skins, which are wetted and sewed itp in a bag. This bag is given 

 the desired fonn ami af'tcr beiu-- rrn/.cu in a solid mass is as service- 

 able as I lie licst [ilaiilv. Ill I Mil it Ilia tn>/.rii salim mi ai'c used in the same 

 way and after haxiiiy servivl tliis purpose in winter are eaten in the 

 spring. Other sledges are made of slabs of fresh water ice, which are 

 cut and allowed to freeze together, or of a large ice block hollowed 

 out in the center. All these are clumsy and heavy and much inferior 

 to the large sledge just described. 



Parry (II, p. 515) states that at Iglulik the antlers are detached from 

 the sledge in winter when the natives go sealing. The tribes of Davis 

 Strait do not practice this custom, but use scarcely any sledge without 

 a pair of antlers. ' 



As to the appearance of the dogs I would refer to Parry (II, p. 515) 

 and other writers and confine my remarks to a description of their 

 use by the Eskimo. 



As the traces are strung upon a thong, as just described, the dogs 

 all pull at one point ; for tliat reason they may seem, at first sight, 

 to be harnessed together without order or regularity ; but they are 

 arranged Avith great care. The strongest and mf)st sjiirited dog has 

 the longest trace and is allowed to run a few feet in advance of the 

 rest as a leader; its sex is indiflferent, the choice being made chiefly 

 with regard to strength. Next to the leader follow two or three 

 strong dogs with traces of equal length, and the weaker and less 

 manageable the dogs the nearer they run to the .sledge. A team is 

 almost unmanageable if the dogs are not accustomed to one another. 

 They must know their leader, who brings them to terms whenever 

 there is a quarrel. In a good team the leader must be the acknowl- 

 edged chief, else the rest will fall into disorder and refuse to follow 

 him. His authority is almost unlimited. When the dogs are fed, 

 he takes the choice morsels; when two of them quarrel, he bites both 

 and thus brings them to terms. 



Generally there is a second dog which is inferior only to the leader, 

 but is feared by all the others. Though the authority of the leader 

 is not disputed by his own team, dogs of another team will not sub- 

 mit to him. But when two teams are accustomed to travel in com- 

 pany the dogs in each will have some regard for the leader of the 

 other, though continuous rivalry and quarrels go on between the two 

 leaders. Almost any dog which is harnessed into a strange team will 

 at first be unwilling to draw, and it is only when he is thoroughly 

 accustomed to all his neighbors and lias found out liis friemls and his 

 enemies that he will do his work satisfactorily. Somedo-s when put 

 into a strange team will throw tlienisulves down and struggle and 



