518 



SECOND VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY 



In directing the sledge the whip acts no very essential part, the driver for 

 this purpose using certain words, as the carters do with us, to make the dogs 

 turn more to the right or left. To these a good leader attends with admira- 

 ble precision, especially if his own name be repeated at the same time, look- 

 ing behind over his shoulder with great earnestness, as if listening to the 

 directions of the driver. On a beaten track, or even where a single foot or 

 sledge-mark is occasionally discernible, there is not the slightest trouble in 

 guiding the dogs ; for even in the darkest night and in the heaviest snow- 

 drift, there is little or no danger of their losing the road, the leader keeping 

 his nose near the ground, and directing the rest with wonderful sagacity. 

 Where, however, there is no beaten track, the best driver among them makes 

 a terribly circuitous course, as all the Esquimaux roads plainly shew ; these 

 generally occupying an extent of six miles, when with a horse and sledge 

 the journey would scarcely have amounted to five. On rough ground, as 

 among hummocks of ice, the sledge would be frequently overturned or 

 altogether stopped if the driver did not repeatedly get off, and by lifting or 

 drawing it to one side steer it clear of those accidents. At all times, 

 indeed, except on a smooth and well-made road, he is pretty constantly em- 

 ployed thus with his feet, which, together with his never-ceasing vocifera- 

 tions and frequent use of the whip, renders the driving of one of these 

 vehicles by no means a pleasant or easy task. When the driver wishes to 

 stop the sledge, he calls out " Wo, woa," exactly as our carters do, but 

 the attention paid to this command depends altogether on his ability to 

 enforce it. If the weight is small and the journey homeward, the dogs are 

 not to be thus delayed ; the driver is therefore obliged to dig his heels into 

 the snow to obstruct their progress ; and having thus succeeded in stopping 

 them, he stands up with one leg before the foremost cross-piece of the sledge 

 till, by means of laying the whip gently over each dog's head, he has made 

 them all lie down. He then takes care not to quit his position ; so that 

 should the dogs set off he is thrown upon the sledge, instead of being left 

 behind by them. 



With heavy loads the dogs draw best with one of their own people, espe- 

 cially a woman, walking a little way a-head ; and in this case they are some- 

 times enticed to mend their pace by holding a mitten to £he mouth, and then 

 making the motion of cutting it with a knife, and throwing it on the snow, when 

 the dogs mistaking it for meat, hasten forward to pick it up. The women 

 also entice them from the huts in a similar manner. The rate at which they 



