272 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE DOGS. Chap. XIV. 



ever been yoked before, and the amount of cun- 

 ning and perversity they displayed to avoid 

 both the whip and the work, was quite asto- 

 nishing. They bit through their traces, and 

 hid away under the sledge, or leaped over one 

 another's backs, so as to get into the middle of 

 the team out of the way of my whip, until the 

 traces became plaited up, and the dogs were 

 almost knotted together ; the consequence was 

 I had to halt every few minutes, pull off my 

 mitts, and, at the risk of frozen fingers, disen- 

 tangle the lines. I persevered, however, and, 

 without breaking any of their bones, succeeded 

 in getting a surprising amount of work out of 

 them. Hobson drove his own dog-sledge like- 

 wise, and as long as we were together we helped 

 each other out of difficulties, and they were 

 frequently occurring, for, apart from those I 

 have above mentioned, directly a dog-sledge is 

 stopped by a hummock, or sticks fast in deep 

 snow, the dogs, instead of exerting themselves, 

 lie down, looking perfectly delighted at the cir- 

 cumstance, and the driver has to extricate the 

 sledge with a hearty one, two, three haul ! and 

 apply a little gentle persuasion to set his canine 

 team in motion again. 



Having searched the east shore of this land 

 for 7 or 8 miles further north, we crossed over 



