The worst of these dogs is that they are very quarrelsome, and are apt to snap and snarl at each other as they gallop along. Sometimes a dog will be exasperated with a bite, and turn furiously on his assailant, when a general fight takes place, the whole of the dogs tumbling over each other, and entangling the traces in a manner that none but an Esquimaux could hope to disentangle. A plentiful application of whip is then made, which is always resented by the dog that receives the stroke. He chooses to think that his next neighbor has hurt him, and so bites his ear. Sometimes a dog is so unruly that the driver is obliged to use his last argument. Making a little hole in the snow with the toe of his boot, he presses the dog’s snout into it, and pounds away at it with the ivory handle of his whip. The dog never howls, nor tries to release himself, but only utters a low whine. Such a punishment never has to be repeated, and the dog always goes quietly for the rest of the day.
The endurance of these animals is wonderful. They are kept in the open air when the temperature is from thirty to forty degrees below zero. They are very ill fed, being forced to content themselves with the bones of fish and seals, scraps of hide, and such very few fragments as their masters cannot devour. Consequently they are always hungry, and can eat almost anything. Captain Hall mentions that in one night they ate a whiplash thirty feet long, and that on one occasion a single dog ate in seven seconds a piece of walrus hide and blubber six feet long and an inch and a half square.
Yet, in spite of all the hardships which they undergo, they can endure almost any amount of fatigue without appearing to be the worse for it, and a team has been known to eat nothing for at least forty-eight hours, to traverse some seventy miles of ground, and yet to return to their homes apparently as fresh as when they set out.
Many of them are possessed of singular intelligence, especially those which are trained to chase the seal, the bear, or the deer. One of these dogs, named Barbekark, belonging to Captain Hall, actually killed a deer himself, took one morsel from the neck, and then went home and fetched his master to the spot where he had left the dead deer. He had a brother that equally distinguished himself in seal catching. He was the leading dog in the team, and once, while drawing a sledge, he caught sight of a seal on the ice. He immediately dashed forward at full speed, and just as the seal was plunging into the water, caught it by the hind flippers. The seal struggled frantically to escape, but the dog retained his hold, and, aided by his fellows, dragged the seal firmly on the ice, when it was secured by his master.
A very amusing example of the intelligence of these dogs is related by Captain Hall. He fed the dogs on “capelins,” a small dried fish, and used to make them stand in a circle round him, so that each received a capelin in turn. “Now Barbekark, a young and shrewd dog, took it into his head that he would play a white man’s trick. So every time he received his fish he would back square out, move a distance of three or four dogs, and force himself in line again, thus receiving double the share of any other dog. But this joke of Barbekark’s bespoke too much of the game many men play upon their fellow-beings, and, as I noticed it, I determined to check his doggish propensities. Still, the amusing and the singular way in which he evidently watched me induced a moment’s pause in my intention.
“Each dog thankfully took his capelin as his turn came round, but Barbekark, finding his share came twice as often as his companions, appeared to shake his tail twice as thankfully as the others. A twinkle in his eyes as they caught mine seemed to say, ‘Keep dark; these ignorant fellows don’t know the game I’m playing. I am confoundedly hungry.’ Seeing my face smiling at his trick, he now commenced making another change, thus getting three portions to each of the others’ one. This was enough, and it was now time for me to reverse the order of Barbekark’s game by playing a trick upon him.
(1.) THE KAJAK AND ITS MANAGEMENT.
(See [page 1344].)
