534 THK CENTRAL ESKIMO. 



howl. They will endure the sevcrcsl lashing- and allow fhomselves 

 to be dragged along over rough ice wilhuiit Kcin-- iiidurcl to rise and 

 run along with the others. Particulai'ly if (heir (jwh team is in .sight 

 will they turn back and try to get to it. Others, again, are (iuite will- 

 ing to work with strange dogs. 



Partly on this account and partly from attachniciit to their masters. 

 dogs sold out of one team frequently return to their nM lionies. and 

 I know of instances in which they even ran from thirt \- to sixty miles 

 to reach it. Sometimes they do so when a sledge is traveling for a 

 few days from one settlement to another, the dogs not having left 

 home for a long time before. In such cases when the Eskimo go to 

 harness their team in the morning they find that some of them have 

 run away, particularly those which were lent from another team for 

 the journey. In order to prevent this the left fore leg is sometimes 

 tied up by a loop which jiasses over the neck. When one is on a 

 joui'iiey it is well to do so every night, as some of the dogs are rather 

 unwilling to be harnessed in the morning, thus causing a great loss 

 of time before they are caught. In fact such animals are custom- 

 arily tied up at night, while the others are allowed to run loose. 



Sometimes the harnesses are not taken off at night. As some dogs 

 are in the habit of stripping off their harness, it is fastened by tying 

 the trace around the body. Though all these peculiarities of the dogs 

 give a great deal of trouble to the driver, he must take care not to 

 punish them too severely, as they will then become frightened and 

 for fear of the whip will not work at all. 



Before putting the dogs to the sledge it must Ije prepared and 

 loaded. In winter the shoes of the runners are covered with a thick 

 coat of ice, which diminishes the friction on the snow. If the shoes 

 are of good bone, ivory, or whalebone, the icing is done with water 

 only, the driver taking a nioiithriil and larefully letting it run over 

 the shoe until a smooth cover of about one third of an inch in thick- 

 ness is produced. The icicles made by the water which I'uns down 

 the side of the runner are carefully removed with the snow knife, 

 and the bottom is smoothed with the same implement and afterward 

 somewhat polished with the mitten. Skin iiinin'is ami otiiers which 

 have poor shoes are fir.st covered with a niixtm-e of moss and water 

 or clay and water. This being frozen, the whole is iced, as has been 

 described. Instead of pure water, a mixture of blood and water or 

 of urine and water is frequently used, as this sticks better to the bone 

 shoe than the former. 



This done, the sledge is turned right side up and loaded. In winter, 

 when the snow is hard,"^mall sledges with narrow shoes are the best. 

 In loading, the bulk of the weight is jjlaced behind. When the snow 

 is soft or there are wide cracks in the floe, long sledges with broad 

 shoes are by far the best. In such cases the heaviest part of the 

 load is placed on the middle of the sledge or even nearer the head. 



