AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
97 
ESQUIMAUX DOG. 
Canis familiaris Borealis . — Desmarest. 
[Plate IX. Vol. 2.] 
This variety of the Dog most nearly resembles the Shep- 
herd’s Dog, and the Wolf Dog. The ears are short and 
erect; the tail is bushy, and carried in a graceful curve 
over the back: in this particular, the Esquimaux Dog prin- 
cipally differs from the wolf of the same district, whose 
tail is carried between his legs in running. The tail 
turned upward is the distinguishing characteristic of 
the domestic Dog, of every variety. It has been consi- 
dered by some naturalists, that these Dogs are wolves in a 
state of domestication. The anatomy of both, for the most 
part, corresponds; the wolf is, however, larger, and more 
muscular. The average height of the Esquimaux Dog is 
one foot, ten inches; the length of the body, from the oc- 
ciput (the back of the head) to the insertion of the tail, 
two feet three inches; and of the tail itself, one foot, one 
inch. Some of the Esquimaux Dogs are brindled, some 
black and white, some almost entirely black, some of yel- 
lowish tinge, and some are of a dingy red. Their coat is thick 
and furry ; the hair, in winter, being from three to four inches 
long: nature has also provided them with an under coating 
of close soft wool, at that season, which they lose in spring; 
so that they endure their climate with comparative comfort. 
They never bark; but have a long melancholy howl, like the 
wolf. They are familiar and domestic; but snarl and fight 
amongst themselves, much more than Dogs in general. 
The Esquimaux, a race of people inhabiting the most 
northerly parts of the American continent, and the adjoin- 
ing islands, are dependent upon the services of this faith- 
ful species of Dog, for most of the few comforts of their 
lives; for assistance in the chase; for carrying burdens; 
and for their rapid and certain conveyance over the track- 
less snows of their dreary plains. The Dogs, subjected to 
a constant dependance upon their masters, receiving scanty 
food and abundant chastisement, assist them in hunting 
the seal, the rein-deer, and the bear. In the summer, a 
single Dog carries a weight of thirty pounds, in attending 
his master in the pursuit of game: in winter, yoked in 
numbers to heavy sledges, they drag five or six persons at 
the rate of seven or eight miles an hour, and will perform 
journeys of sixty miles a day. What the rein-deer is to 
the Laplander, this Dog is to the Esquimaux. He is a 
faithful slave, who grumbles, but does not rebel; whose 
endurance never tires, and whose fidelity is never shaken 
by blows and starving. These animals are obstinate in 
their nature; but the women, who treat them with more 
B B 
kindness than the men, and who nurse them in their help- 
less state, or when they are sick, have an unbounded com- 
mand over their affections; and can thus catch them at any 
time, and entice them from their huts, to yoke them to 
their sledges, even when they are suffering the severest 
hunger, and have no resource but to eat the most tough 
and filthy remains of animal matter which they can espy 
on their laborious journeys. 
The mode in which the Esquimaux Dogs are employed 
in drawing the sledge, is described in a very striking man- 
ner, by Captain Parry, in his “ Journal of a Second Voy- 
age for the Discovery of a North-West Passage.” 
“When drawing a sledge, the Dogs have a simple har- 
ness ( annon ) of deer or seal skin, 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, par- 
ticularly 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 precedency 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 to- 
gether, several are nearly abreast of each other. The dri- 
ver 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, 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 women 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 divergency, accompanied by the usual yelping and 
showing of the teeth. The Dogs then come together again 
