158 
SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION 
[February 
Tlic teams are pulling very well, Mcares' especially. The 
animals are getting a little fierce. Two white dogs in 
Meares' team have been trained to attack strangers — they 
were quiet enough on board ship, but now bark fiercely if 
anyone but their driver approaches the team. They 
suddenly barked at me as I was pointing out the stopping 
place to Meares, and Osman, my erstwhile friend, swept 
round and nipped my leg lightly. I had no stick, and 
there is no doubt that if Meares had not been on the 
sledge the whole team, following the lead of the white 
dogs, would have been at me in a moment. 
Hunger and fear are the only realities in dog life : an 
empty stomach makes a fierce dog. There is something 
almost alarming in the sudden fierce display of natural 
instinct in a tame creature. Instinct becomes a blind, 
unreasoning, relentless passion. For instance, the dogs 
are as a rule all very good friends in harness : they pull 
side by side rubbing shoulders, they walk over each other 
as they settle to rest, relations seem quite peaceful and 
quiet. But the moment food is in their thoughts, how- 
ever, their passions awaken ; each dog is suspicious of 
his neighbour, and the smallest circumstance produces 
a fight. With like suddenness their rage flares out in- 
stantaneously if they get mixed up on the march — a 
quiet, peaceable team which has been lazily stretching 
itself with wagging tails one moment will become a set 
of raging, tearing, fighting devils the next. It is such 
stern facts that resign one to the sacrifice of animal life 
in the effort to advance such human projects as this. 
The Corner Camp. [Bearings : Obs. Hill < Bluff 86° ; 
