204 
A VOYAGE TO 
1779. they are lazy, or otherwife inattentive to his voice, he chaf- 
May ‘ tifes them by throwing it at them. Upon thefe occafions, 
their dexterity in picking it up again is very remarkable, 
and forms the principal difficulty of their art. But it is 
indeed not furprizing, that they lliould labour to be fkilful 
in a pradtice upon which their fafety fo materially depends. 
For they fay,, that if the driver fhould happen to lofe his 
ffick, the dogs will inftantly perceive it; and unlefs their 
leader be of the moft fober and refolute kind, they will im¬ 
mediately run a-head full fpeed, and never flop till they are 
quite fpent. But as that will not be the cafe foon, it gene¬ 
rally happens, that either the carriage is overturned, and 
daffied to pieces again!! the trees, or they hurry down fome 
precipice, and are all buried in the fnow. The accounts 
that were given us of the fpeed of thefe dogs, and of their 
extraordinary patience of hunger and fatigue, were fcarcely 
credible, if they had not been fupported by the bell au¬ 
thority. We were indeed ourfelves witneffes of the great 
expedition with which the meffenger,. who had been dif- 
patched to Bolcheretfk with the news of our arrival, re¬ 
turned to the harbour of St. Peter and St. Paul, though the 
fnow was, at this time, exceedingly foft. But I was in¬ 
formed, by the Commander of Kamtfchatka, that this jour¬ 
ney was generally performed in two days and a half; and 
that he had once received an exprefs from the latter place in 
twenty-three hours. 
The dogs are fed, during the winter, on the offals' of 
dried and ffinking fiffi ; but are always deprived of this mi- 
ferable food, a day before they let out on a journey, and 
never fuffered to eat before they reach the end of it. We 
were alfo told, that it was not unufual for them to continue, 
thus faffing two entire days, in which time they would per¬ 
form 
