OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



517 



sealskin, going round the neck by one bight, and another for each of the fore- 

 legs, with a single thong leading over the back and attached to the sledge as a 

 trace. Though they appear at first sight to be huddled together without regard 

 to regularity, there is, in fact, considerable attention paid to their arrangement, 

 particularly in the selection of a dog of peculiar spirit and sagacity, who is 

 allowed, by a longer trace, to precede the rest as leader, and to whom, in 

 turning to the right or left, the driver usually addresses himself. This choice 

 is made without regard to age or sex, and the rest of the dogs take prece- 

 dency according to their training or sagacity, the least effective being put 

 nearest the sledge. The leader is usually from eighteen to twenty feet from 

 the fore part of the sledge, and the hindmost dog about half that distance, 

 so that when ten or twelve are running together, several are nearly abreast 

 of each other. The driver sits quite low on the fore-part of the sledge, with 

 his feet overhanging the snow on one side, and having in his hand a whip (6.) 

 of which the handle, made either of wood, bone, or whalebone, is eighteen 

 inches, and the lash more than as many feet in length. The part of the 

 thong next the handle is platted a little way down to stiffen it and give it a 

 spring, on which much of its use depends ; and that which composes the lash 

 is chewed by the Avomen to make it flexible in frosty weather. The men 

 acquire from their youth considerable expertness in the use of this whip, the 

 lash of which is left to trail along the ground by the side of the sledge, and 

 with which they can inflict a very severe blow on any dog at pleasure. 

 Though the dogs are kept in training entirely by fear of the whip, and indeed 

 without it would soon have their own way, its immediate effect is always 

 detrimental to the draught of the sledge ; for not only does the individual 

 that is struck draw back and slacken his trace, but generally turns upon his 

 next neighbour, and this passing on to the next occasions a general diver- 

 gency, accompanied by the usual yelping and shewing of teeth. The dogs 

 then come together again by degrees, and the draught of the sledge is acce- 

 lerated ; but even at the best of times, by this rude mode of draught the 

 traces of one-third of the dogs form an angle of thirty or forty degrees on 

 each side of the direction in which the sledge is advancing. Another great 

 inconvenience attending the Esquimaux method of putting the dogs to, 

 besides that of not employing their strength to the best advantage, is the 

 constant entanglement of the traces by the dogs repeatedly doubling under 

 from side to side to avoid the whip, so that, after running a few miles, the 

 traces always require to be taken off and cleared. 



