THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



195 



WEARING THE CHEVRONS OF HONOR FOR SERVICE OVERSEAS 



A ship's mascot is as truly essential in the maintenance of morale among bluejackets as 

 are clean quarters, good food, and strict discipline. These tiny tykes, with their blankets 

 bearing service stripes, are important units of the United States battleship Oklahoma's com- 

 plement of fighters. 



blance is nowhere stronger than in the 

 Eskimo dogs of Greenland and Alaska, 

 which are believed to be simply domesti- 

 cated wolves. Some of the Arctic ex- 

 plorers have called attention to the diffi- 

 culty of distinguishing them from the 

 wild wolves of the same region. 



Captain Parry, in the journal of his 

 second voyage, speaks of a pack of 13 

 wolves which came boldly within a few 

 yards of his ship, The Fury, but which 

 he and his men dared not shoot, because 

 they could not be quite sure that they 

 were not shooting sledge dogs and thus 

 doing the Eskimos an irreparable injury. 



A few years ago Admiral Peary kindly 

 conducted me over Flag Island, in Casco 

 Bay, that I might see the pure-bred 

 North Greenland Eskimo dogs which he 

 brought back after his discovery of the 

 Xorth Pole. When these animals carried 

 their tails curled over their backs, as they 

 usually do, there was no mistaking them 

 for anything else but dogs, but the mo- 

 ment they lowered their tails, as they 

 often did, to all appearances they were 

 gray wolves. 



Another striking example of this simi- 

 larity between Eskimo dogs and wolves 

 is shown in a photograph by Donald B. 



