ESQUIMAUX DOG. 
59 
We were informed that when these Dogs are on a journey, in winter, 
should they be overtaken by a severe snow-storm, and thereby prevented 
from reaching a settlement within the calculated time, and if the provisions 
intended for them in consequence give out, in their ravenous hunger they 
devour the driver, and even prey upon one another. Such cases were 
related to us, as well as others in which, by severe whipping and loud 
cries the Dogs were forced into a gallop and kept on the full run until 
some house was reached and the sleigh-driver saved. 
These animals are taught to go in harness from the time they are quite 
young pups, being placed in a team along with well trained Dogs when 
only two or three months old, to gain experience and learn to obey their 
master, who wields a whip of twenty or thirty feet length of lash, with a 
short, heavy handle. 
On a man approaching a house where they are kept, these Dogs sally 
forth with fierce barkings at the intruder, and it requires a bold heart to 
march up to them, as with their pointed ears and wiry hair they look like 
a pack of wild wolves. They are in fact very savage and ferocious at 
times, and require the strictest discipline to keep them in subjection. 
Captain Lyon gives an interesting account of the Esquimaux Dog, part 
of which we shall here lay before you : “ A walrus is frequently drawn 
along by three or four of these Dogs, and seals are sometimes carried home 
in the same manner, though I have in some instances seen a Dog bring 
home the greater part of a seal in panniers placed across his back. The 
latter mode of conveyance is often used in summer, and the Dogs also carry 
skins or furniture overland to the sledges when their masters are going on 
any expedition. It. might be supposed that in so cold a climate these 
animals had peculiar periods of gestation, like the wild creatures ; but on 
the contrary, they bear young at every season of the year, the pups seldom 
exceeding five at a litter. Cold has very little effect on them ; for, 
although the dogs at the huts slept within the snow passages, mine at the 
ships had no shelter, but lay alongside, with the thermometer at 42° and 
44° (below zero !) and with as little concern as if the weather had been 
mild. I found by several experiments, that three of my dogs could draw 
me on a sledge weighing 100 pounds at the rate of one mile in six minutes ; 
and as a proof of the strength of a well-grown Dog, my leader drew 196 
pounds singly, and to the same distance, in eight minutes. At another 
time, seven of my Dogs ran a mile in four minutes, drawing a heavy sledge 
full of men. Afterwards, in carrying stores to the Eury, one mile distant, 
nine Dogs drew 1611 pounds in the space of nine minutes. My sledge was 
on runners neither shod nor iced ; but had the runners been iced, at least 
40 pounds might have been added for each Dog.” 
