98 
THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 
by degrees, and the draught of the sledge is accelerated; 
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 attend- 
ing 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 re- 
peatedly 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 cleaned. 
“ In directing the sledge, the whip acts no very essen- 
tial 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 
admirable precision, especially if his own name be repeated 
at the same time, looking 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 lit- 
tle or no danger of their losing the road, the leader keep- 
ing 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 circui- 
tous course, as all the Esquimaux roads plainly show; 
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 alto- 
gether stopped, if the driver did not repeatedly get off, 
and by lifting or drawing it to one side, steer clear of 
those accidents. At all times, indeed, excejfi on a smooth 
and well made road, he is pretty constantly employed 
thus with his feet, which, together with his never-ceasing 
vociferations, 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 jour- 
ney 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 fore- 
most 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, especially a woman, walking a little 
way a-head; and in this case they are sometimes enticed 
to mend their pace by holding a mitten to the 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 en- 
tice them from the huts in a similar manner. The rate at 
which they travel depends, of course, on the weight they 
have to draw, and the road on which their journey is per- 
formed. When the latter is level, and very hard and smooth, 
constituting what, in other parts of North America, is 
called ‘ good sleighing,’ six or seven Dogs will draw from 
eight to ten hundred weight, at the rate of seven or eight 
miles an hour, for several hours together; and will easily, 
under these circumstances, perform a journey of fifty or 
sixty miles a day. On untrodden snow, five and twenty 
or thirty miles would be a good day’s journey. The same 
number of well-fed Dogs, with a weight of only five or six 
hundred pounds, (that of the sledge included,) are almost 
unmanageable, and will, on a smooth road, run any way 
they please, at the rate of ten miles an hour. The work 
performed by a greater number of Dogs is, however, by 
no means in a proportion to this, owing to the;, imperfect 
mode already described, of employing the strength of 
these sturdy creatures, and to the more frequent snarling 
and fighting occasioned by an increase of numbers.” 
The Dogs of the Esquimaux offer to us a striking example 
of the great services which the race of Dogs has rendered to 
mankind in the progress of civilization. The inhabitants of 
the shores of Baffin’s Bay, and of those still more incle- 
ment regions to which discovery ships have recently pene- 
trated, are perhaps never destined to advance much farther 
than their present condition in the scale of humanity. 
Their climate forbids them attempting the gratification of 
any desires beyond the commonest animal wants. In the 
short summers, they hunt the rein-deer for a stock of food 
and clothing; during the long winter, when the stern de- 
mands of hunger drive them from their snow-huts, to search 
for provisions, they still find a supply in the rein-deer, in 
the seals, which lie in holes under the ice of the lakes, 
and in the bears which prowl about on the frozen shores of 
the sea. Without the exquisite scent and the undaunted 
courage of their Dogs, the several objects of their chase 
could never be obtained in sufficient quantities, during the 
winter, to supply the wants of the inhabitants; nor could 
the men be conveyed from place to place over the snow, 
with that celerity which greatly contributes to their suc- 
cess in hunting. In drawing the sledges, if the Dogs 
scent a single rein-deer, even a quarter of a mile distant, 
they gallop off furiously in the direction of the scent; and 
