276 LABRADOR 
to the bottom, and brought the seal to the surface by the 
flipper. 
I am inclined to think the half-breed dogs are the clever- 
est also in memorizing. In 1907 I was driving a distance 
of seventy miles across country. The path was untravelled 
for the winter, and was only a direction, not being cut and 
blazed. The leading dog had been once across the previous 
year with the doctor. The “going” had then been very 
bad; with snow and fog, the journey had taken three days. 
A large part of the journey lay across wide lakes, and then 
through woods. As neither I nor my friends on the other 
komatiks had been that way before, we had to leave it 
to the dog. He went so quickly and so confidently that it 
grew almost weird to sit behind him. Several times I called 
a halt to examine the direction and leads. Without a single 
fault, as far as we knew, he took us across, and we accom- 
plished the whole journey in twelve hours, including one 
and a half hours for rest and lunch. 
No amount of dry cold seems to affect the dogs. They 
sleep out on the coldest nights, frequently choosing the most 
exposed places, and apparently disdaining any shelter. 
I have almost had to dig them out from new snow in the 
mornings. They will stay in the water any length of time 
in summer when the water is from 40 to 48° F. I have seen 
a dog mistake the buoy on a net for a stick thrown by his 
master. Heswam out, seized it, and tried to pull it ashore. 
We went in and had tea, and when we came out again, the 
dog was still pulling at the buoy. Yet, in winter, the dogs 
dread the water, and it is very difficult to drive them 
through it. They seem also to have an instinct telling them 
when ice cannot be depended on, and it is rare that they 
fall through, unless being urged on by a driver. 
