LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
351 
Narlook undertook to instruct them for the trifling’ gratuity of 
a couple of fish-hooks. The making of a dog-whip and the 
ability to use it are two very distinct things, and perhaps in no 
attempt to acquire a particular art, did the sailors of the Victory 
exhibit greater awkwardness, then in learning the use of the 
Esquimaux dog-whip. A person who learns to thrash, generally 
gives himself a few knocks on the head with the flail before he 
attains to any skilfulness in the art, and it was very necessary 
for a sailor in learning how to use a dog-whip, to stand at a 
respectful distance from his companions, for if it did not so 
happen that he gave himself a cut or two across the face, it 
generally fell out that the individuals, who were so unlucky as 
o station themselves in the immediate vicinity of the practi¬ 
tioner, generally received a smart visitation of the lash across 
their face, or more likely across their legs, as it is necessary to 
to give the lash a slanting direction for the purpose of reaching 
the foremost dogs. It is the boast of some of the celebrated 
whips of our stage coaches, that they will whip a fly off the tip 
of the ear of either of their leaders, but their boasted dexterity 
sinks into insignificance when put into competition with the 
skill of an Esquimaux dog-driver. 
The action of the Esquimaux in whipping his dog is somewhat 
similar to that of the Russian executioner using the knout, and like 
the criminal were to the dog on whom the lash falls : the dog how¬ 
ever is not urged on so much by the lash as by particular exclama¬ 
tions of the driver, to which he has been accustomed from his 
puppyism, and which if not obeyed, his experience tells him 
that the lash will soon follow. The life of the Esquimaux dogs 
is one of finished misery , during their minority, like certain 
biped puppies, they are fondled and pampered by the female 
sex, but when out of leading strings, and are consigned over 
to their rightful master to be initiated in the art and mys¬ 
tery of sledge-drawing, their life is one of hardship and pri¬ 
vation. The dogs generally appear as the inmates of an Es¬ 
quimaux hut huddled up together in one particular place, 
which is never cleaned from the construction of the hut to its 
desertion, and the stench of which is amalgamated with the other 
