ined to pull a sled of some
kind or other during, the months of snow and ice: all are destined to
howl under the driver's lash; to tug wildly at the moose-skin collar; to
drag until they can drag no more, and then to die. At what age a dog is
put to haul I could never satisfactorily ascertain, but I have seen dogs
doing some kind of hauling long be fore the peculiar expression of the
puppy had left their countenances. Speaking now with the experience of
nearly fifty days of dog travelling, and the knowledge of some twenty
different trains of dogs of all sizes, ages, and degrees, watching them
closely on the track and in the camp during 1300 miles of travel, I may
claim, I think, some right to assert that I possess no inconsiderable
insight into the habits, customs, and thoughts (for a dog thinks far
better than many of his masters) of the hauling dog. When I look back
again upon the long list of "Whiskies," "Brandies," "Chocolats,"
"Corbeaus," "Tigres," "Tete Noirs," "Cerf Volants," "Pilots,"
"Capitaines," "Cariboos," "muskymotes," "Coffees," and "Nichinassis" who
individually and collectively did their best to haul me and my baggage
over that immense waste of snow and ice, what a host of sadly resigned
faces rises up in the dusky light of the fire! faces seared by whip-mark
and blow of stick, faces mutely conscious that that master for whom the
dog gives up every thing in this life was treating him in a most brutal
manner. I do not for an instant mean to assert that these dogs were not,
many of them, great rascals and rank imposters; but Just as slavery
produces certain vices in the slave which it would be unfair to hold him
accountable for, so does this perversion of the dog from his true use to
that of a beast of burthen produce in endless variety traits of cunning
and deception in the hauling-dog. To be a thorough expert in dog-training
a man must be able to imprecate freely and with considerable variety in
at least three different languages. But whatever number of tongues the
driver may speak, one is indispensable to perfection in the art, and that
is French: curses seem useful adjuncts in any language, but curses
delivered in French will get a train of dogs through or over any thing.
There is a good story told which illustrates this peculiar feature in
dog-training. It is said that a high dignitary of the Church was once
making a winter tour through his missions in the North-west. The driver,
out of deference for hi