¢ 40 
WwW. Dp a. Ww. 
are fed with fifh-bones and opana, i. e. putrid fith preferved in 
pits, and ferved up to them mixed with hot water. Thofe ufed for 
draught are caftrated; and four, yoked to the carriage, will draw 
five poods, or a hundred and ninety Engli/fh pounds, befides the 
driver; and thus loaden, will travel thirty verfts, or twenty miles, a 
day; or if unloaden, on hardened fnow, on ras of bone, a hun- 
dred and fifty verfts, or a hundred Englifb miles*. 
It is pretty certain that the Kamt/chatkan Dogs are of wolfifh de- 
fcent; for Wolves abound in that country, in all parts of Sibiria, 
and even under the 4rfic circle. If their mafter is flung out of 
his fledge, they want the affectionate fidelity of the European kind, 
and leave him to follow, never {topping till the fledge is overturned, 
or elfe ftopped by fome impediment t+. J am alfo ftrengthened in 
my opinion by the ftrong rage they have for the purfuit of deer, if 
on the journey they crofs ¢ the fcent; when the matter finds it very 
difficult to make them purfue their way. 
The great traveller of the thirteenth century, Marco Polo, had 
knowlege of this fpecies of conveyance from the merchants who went 
far north to traffic for the precious furs. He defcribes the fledges ; 
adds, that they were drawn by fix great dogs; and that they changed 
them and the fledges on the road, as we do at prefent in going 
pott f. 
The Kamt/chatkans make ufe of the fkins of dogs for cloathing, and 
the long hair for ornament: fome nations are fond of them as a 
food; and reckon a fat dog a great delicacy §.. Both the 4fatic and 
American Savages ufe thefe animals in facrifices to their gods 4, to be- 
tpeak favor, or avert evil. When the Koreki dread any infection, 
* Hift. Kamtfchatha, 107. 197. + The fame, 107. 
- } The fame.—There is a variety of black wolves in the Vekroturiaxz mountains, 
The fhe-wolves have been fuccefsfully coupled with dogs in fome noblemen’s parks 
about Mo/fcow. 
{] In Bergeron, 160. § Hift. Kamtfchatha, 231. The Americans do the fame, 
Drage, i. 216+ q Hift, Kamt{ch. 226. Drage, ii. 41. 
they 
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