MAMMALIA—DOG, 135 
THE ESQUIMAUX DOG. 
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T ss animal is one of those varieties of the dog, from which man receives 
obedience and affection. To the Esquimaux Indians his services are invalu- 
able. He assists them to hunt the bear, the rein-deer, and the seal; in 
summer, while attending his master in the chase, he carries a weight of 
thirty pounds; in winter he is yoked toa sledge, and conveys his master 
over the trackless snows. Several of them drawing together, will convey 
five or six persons, at the rate of seven or eight miles an hour, and will 
travel sixty miles in a day. In winter he is scantily fed, and roughly treat- 
ed, yet his fidelity remains unshaken. The Esquimaux dog does not bark. 
In appearance, he comes nearest to the shepherd’s dog, and the wolf dog. 
His ears are short and erect, and his bushy tail curves elegantly over his 
back. His average stature is one foot ten inches, and the length of his 
body,.from the back of the head to the commencement of the tail, is two 
feet three inches. His coat is long and furry, and is sometimes brindled, 
sometimes of a dingy red, sometimes black and white, and sometimes 
almost wholly black. ‘ 
The manner in which the sledge is drawn by these animals, is described 
with much accuracy and spirit, by Captain Parry, in the Journal of his 
Second Voyage. ‘When drawing a sledge,” says he, ‘the dogs have a 
simple harness, (annoo,) of deer or seal skin, going round the neck by one 
bight, and another for each of the fore legs, with a single thong leading over 
1 C, Borealis. This animal is a native of America, and is considered by Godman, as 
descended from the wolf and the fox. He observes, that they retain so much of the ex- 
ternal appearance, and general carriage of the wild animal, as to leave no question of 
their descent from the same stock of the wolf, residing in the vicinity, and do not appear 
to be distinctly removed from that species, however long they may have been in the 
service of man. 
