886 
LAST VOYAGE OF CAPT. ROSS. 
and so completely covered as to defy the rigour of the frost. The 
sledge of the Esquimaux is however completely open, and in its 
construction is well calculated for travelling on a smooth surface 
of snow, but when the road is interrupted by frequent projections 
of ice, or that the surface presents any of those inequalities, 
which must be the inevitable consequence of a rocky country, 
skilful indeed must be the individual, who can retain his seat, or 
who can so adjust the equilibrium of his body, as to make it 
yield to the numerous inclinations, which the ruggedness of the 
road occasions. It must also be taken into consideration, that 
tractable and docile as the dogs may be, they cannot all of them 
be made to stop on a sudden, like the horses in a stage coach, 
and therefore the driver, if he be not actually thrown out into the 
snow, runs some risk of being dragged a considerable distance 
before he can persuade his animals by threats or entreaties to 
stop their course. Capk Franklin on passing the Great Slave 
Lake, measured his length several times on the ice, but an Esqui¬ 
maux, like the skilful Jehus of the present day, so humours his 
body to the motion of his sledge, that his overthrow very 
seldom takes place, for although his body may at times form an 
angle of 45° with the horizon, yet he possesses by practice the 
art of throwing the counterpoise to the other side, and thereby 
preventing his ejectment from the sledge. The speed of an 
Esquimaux dog is on the average six miles per hour, although 
when hardly pressed, he has been known to accomplish eight, 
and it has been well ascertained, that a dog in the continuity 
of his speed will far outstrip a horse. The road which Com¬ 
mander Ross had to travel on, was full of ruts and ravines, for 
as no Me’ Adam had up to that period made his appearance 
amongst the Esquimaux people, no distinct line of road had been 
traced out from one station to another, nor any of the inequalities 
levelled, which endangered the lives of the travellers, or which 
might be the cause of the fracture of a leg or an arm. The com¬ 
mander however made very little progress without experiencing 
an overthrow, when Alwak, setting aside the dignity of the 
individual, whom he was accompanying, always burst out into 
a loud laugh, and danced about, as if he were overcome with joy 
