the heavily loaded sleds along.

Four dogs constitute a train. They are harnessed in tandem style, as
all this vast country north of the fertile prairies is a region of
forests. The Esquimaux style of giving each dog a separate trace, thus
letting them spread out in a fan-like form, would never do in this land
of trees and dense under-bush.

The harness, which is made of moose skin, is often decorated with
ribbons and little musical bells. Singular as it may appear, the dogs
were very fond of the bells, and always seemed to travel better and be
in greater spirits when they could dash along in unison with their
tinkling. Some dogs could not be more severely punished than by taking
the bells off their harness.

The head dog of the train is called "the leader." Upon him depends a
great deal of the comfort and success, and at times the safety, of the
whole party. A really good leader is a very valuable animal. Some of
them are so intelligent that they do not require a guide to run ahead of
them, except in the most dense and unbeaten forest trails. I had a
long-legged white dog, of mixed breed, that ever seemed to consider a
guide a nuisance, when once he had got into his big head an idea of what
I wanted him to do. Outside of his harness Old Voyager, as we called
him, was a morose, sullen, unsociable brute. So hard to approach was he
that generally a rope about sixty feet long, with one end fastened
around his neck, trailed out behind him. When we wanted to catch him,
we generally had to start off in the opposite direction from him, for he
was as cunning as a fox, and ever objected to being caught. In zigzag
ways we moved about until he was thrown off his guard, and then by-and-
by it was possible to come near enough to get hold of the long rope and
haul him in. When once the collar was on his neck, and he had taken his
place at the head of the party, he was the unrivalled leader. No matter
how many trains might happen to be travelling together, no one thought
of taking first place while Old Voyager was at hand.

Lake Winnipeg is very much indented with deep, wide bays. The headlands
are from five to thirty miles apart. When dog-travelling on that great
lake in winter, the general plan is to travel from headland to headland.
When leaving one where perhaps we had slept or dined, all we had to do
was to turn Old Voyager's head in the right direction, and show him the
distant point to which we wished to go;