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THE ESQUIMAUX DOG. | 529 
winter to the combined effects of want of food and hard 
work. There is also an epidemic disease which is very de- 
structive some years, and is undoubtedly the same as that 
described by Dr. Hayes as occurring amongst his dogs on 
Smith's Sound during the winter of 1860-61. As in the 
cases related by him, the symptoms closely resembled those 
of hydrophobia, but the disease does not appear to be so 
communicable by the bite. There seems also to be some 
connection between the disease and the nature and quantity 
of the food, as it was mostly confined in its ravages during 
the winter of 1865—66 to the poorly and irregularly fed 
dogs of the natives, while the better cared for animals of 
the Russian traders suffered in a much less proportion. 
Genuine hydrophobia does sometimes occur; a most unmis- 
takable case of it was observed during the summer of 1866. 
During the summer months, from May to September, the 
dogs are fed only irregularly by most of their owners, and 
are sometimes left entirely to themselves to find their own 
living. In spite of this they usually manage to grow fat 
during this season, and to make up all they have lost in 
strength and substance during the winter. They supply 
themselves with fresh game, not only the smaller quadrupeds 
and grouse, but also occasionally running down a deer. Their 
hunting instincts are so strongly developed, that while trav- 
elling in the winter, if a reindeer or even a fox or rabbit is 
in sight, it is quite difficult to keep any control over the 
dogs, and the mere utterance of the word tung tuk (Esqui- 
maux for reindeer) is often effectual to enliven a lagging 
team. Many dogs wander off after deer in the summer and 
are lost to deir owners; and as comparatively few stray 
dogs are picked up, it appears that the greater number of 
these either revert to the wild state, or are destroyed by 
wolves and other beasts of prey. Wolves sometimes attack 
and earry off dogs from trading posts and villages. In the 
spring of 1866, a wolf attacked some twenty or thirty dogs - 
just outside of the stockade at St. Michael's. The uproar 
AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. III. 
