96 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. 
this account the equipment of every sledge embraces a number 
of ‘dog shoes of the appearance shown in the accompanying 
woodcut. They are used only in case of need. 
The Chukch dogs are of the same breed, but smaller, than 
the Eskimo dogs in Danish Greenland. They resemble wolves, 
are long-legged, long-haired, and shaggy. The ears are short, 
commonly upright; their colour very variable, from black or 
white, and black or white spotted, to grey or yellowish-brown. 
For innumerable generations they have been used as draught 
animals, while as watch dogs they have not been required in a 
country where theft or robbery appears never to take place. 
The power of barking they have therefore com¬ 
pletely lost, or perhaps they never possessed it. 
Even a European may come into the outer 
tent without any of the dogs there informing 
their owners sleeping in the inner tent by a 
sound of the foreigner s arrival. 
On the other hand, they are good though 
slow draught animals, being capable of long- 
continued exertion. They are as dirty and 
as peaceable as their owners. There are no 
fights made between dog-teams belonging to 
different tents, and they are rare between the 
dogs of an encampment and those of strangers. In Europe 
dogs are the friends of their masters and the enemies of 
each other; here they are the friends of each other and the 
slaves of their masters. In winter they appear in case of 
necessity to get along with very little food; they are then ex¬ 
ceedingly lean, and for the most part lie motionless in some 
snow-drift. They seldom leave the neighbourhood of the tent 
alone, not even to search for food or hunt at their own hand 
and for their own account. This appears to me so much the 
more remarkable, as they are often several days, I am inclined 
to say weeks, in succession without getting any food from their 
DOG SHOE. 
Oiie-third of the 
natural size. 
