Notwithstanding the many excellent qualities so conspicuous in this noble breed of dog, he is said to possess one most ungenerous trait of character, "a peculiar antipathy to sheep," and if not early trained to endure their presence, will take every opportunity to destroy these innocent animals.

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The Esquimaux Dog is a beast of burden and of draught, usefully employed by the inhabitants of the extreme parts of North America and the neighbouring islands. When the Esquimaux Indian goes in pursuit of the seal, the rein-deer, or the bear, his dogs carry the materials of his temporary hut, and the few necessaries of his simple life; or, yoked to the sledge, often draw him and his family full sixty miles a-day over the frozen plains of these inhospitable regions. At other times they assist in the chase, and run down and destroy the bear and the rein-deer on land, and the seal on the coast.
These dogs are very early trained to the work which they are destined to follow, and even at the tender age of four or five months are harnessed together or in company with older animals, and are compelled, either by persuasion or brutal chastisement, to draw heavy weights, and thus soon become accustomed to the trammels of the rude gearing, and familiar with the service that they afterwards perform with so much sagacity and alacrity.

Capt. Lyon states that they are very similar in appearance to the shepherd dog of England, but more muscular and broad chested, owing to severe work; ears pointed, of a savage appearance; the finer dogs are equal to the Newfoundland breed in point of height and general symmetry.

It is also somewhat curious to be informed that these dogs have no particular season of œ strum, but bear young indiscriminately at all times of the year, cold or warm, having very little or no effect upon their reproductive powers, being often seen in heat during the month of December when the thermometer was forty degrees below zero.

Their journeys are often without any certain object; but, if the dogs scent the deer or the bear, they gallop away in that direction until their prey is within reach of the driver, or they are enabled to assist in destroying their foe. Captain Parry, in his Journal of a

Second Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage

, gives an amusing account of these expeditions.

"A number of dogs, varying from six to twelve, are attached to each sledge by means of a single trace, but with no reins. An old and tried dog is placed as the leader, who, in their simple journeys, and when the chase is the object, steadily obeys the voice of the driver sitting in front of the sledge, with a whip long enough to reach the leader. This whip, however, is used as seldom as possible; for these dogs, although tractable, are ferocious, and will endure little correction. When the whip is applied with severity on one, he falls upon and worries his neighbour, and he, in his turn, attacks a third, and there is a scene of universal confusion, or the dogs double from side to side to avoid the whip, and the traces become entangled, and the safety of the sledge endangered. The carriage must then be stopped, each dog put into his proper place, and the traces re-adjusted. This frequently happens several times in the course of the day. The driver therefore depends principally on the docility of the leader, who, with admirable precision, quickens or slackens his pace, and starts off or stops, or turns to the right or left, at the summons of his master. When they are journeying homeward, or travelling to some spot to which the leader has been accustomed to go, he is generally suffered to pursue his own course; for, although every trace of the road is lost in the drifting snow, he scents it out, and follows it with undeviating accuracy. Even the leader, however, is not always under the control of his master. If the journey lies homeward, he will go his own pace, and that is usually at the top of his speed; or, if any game starts, or he scents it at a distance, no command of his driver will restrain him. Neither the dog nor his master is half civilized or subdued."