THE INSIDE DOG. 
11 
them stationary, and communicating by tin funnels 
with our chimney, so as to carry away their soot. 
“Mr. Wilson has relapsed. I gave him a potash 
(saleratus) warm bath to-day, and took his place at 
watch. I have now seven hours’ continuous watch 
at one beat. 
“January 12, Friday.—In reviewing our tempera¬ 
tures, the monthly and annual means startle me. 
Whatever views we may have theoretically as to the 
distribution of heat, it was to have been expected that 
so large a water-area but thirty-five miles to the S.W. 
by W. of our position would tell upon our records; and 
this supposition was strengthened by the increased fall 
of snow, which was clearly due to the neighborhood of 
this water. 
“January 13, Saturday.—I am feeding up my few 
remaining dogs very carefully; but I have no meat for 
them except the carcasses of their late companions. 
These have to be boiled; for in their frozen state they 
act as caustics, and, to dogs famishing as ours have 
been, frozen food often proves fatal, abrading the 
stomach and oesophagus. One of these poor creatures 
had been a child’s pet among the Esquimaux. Last 
night I found her in nearly a dying state at the mouth 
of our iossut, wistfully eyeing the crevices of the door 
as they emitted their forbidden treasures of light and 
heat. She could not move, but, completely subdued, 
licked my hand,— the first time I ever had such a 
civilized greeting from an Esquimaux dog. I carried 
her in among the glories of the moderate paradise she 
