with Bear the sole companion of the journey. Nor were these days
on the great lakes by any means the dullest of the journey, Cerf Volant,
Tigre, Cariboo, and Muskeymote gave ample occupation to their driver.
Long before Manitoba was reached they had learnt a new lesson-that men
were not all cruel to dogs in camp or on the road. It is true that in the
learning of that lesson some little difficulty was occasioned by the
sudden loosening and disruption of ideas implanted by generations of
cruelty in the dog-mind of my train. It is true that Muskeymote, in
particular, long held aloof from offers of friendship, and then suddenly
passed from the excess of caution to the extreme of imprudence,
imagining, doubtless, that the millennium had at length arrived, and
that dogs were henceforth no more to haul. But Muskeymote was soon set
right upon that point, and showed no inclination to repeat his mistake.
Then there was Cerf Volant, that most perfect Esquimaux. Cerf Volant
entered readily into friendship, upon an under-standing of an additional
half-fish at supper every evening. No alderman ever loved his turtle
better than did Cerf Volant love his white fish; but I rather think that
the white fish was better earned than the turtle--however we will let
that be matter of opinion. Having satisfied his hunger, which, by the
way, is a luxury only allowed to the hauling-dog once a day, Cerf Volant
would generally establish himself in close proximity to my feet,
frequently on the top of the bag, from which coigne of vantage he would
exchange fierce growls with any dog who had the temerity to approach us.
None of our dogs were harness-eaters, a circumstance that saved us the
nightly trouble of placing harness and cariole in the branches of a tree.
On one or two occasions Muskeymote, however, ate his boots. "Boots!" the
reader will exclaim; "how came Muskeymote to possess boots? We have heard
of a puss in boots, but a dog, that is something new." Nevertheless
Muskeymote had his boots, and ate them, too. This is how a dog is put in
boots. When the day is very cold--I don't mean in your reading of that
word, reader, but in its North-west sense--when the morning, then, comes
very cold, the dogs travel fast, the drivers run to try and restore the
circulation, and noses and cheeks which grow white beneath the bitter
blast are rubbed with snow caught-quickly from the ground without pausing
in the rapid stride; on such mornings, and they are by no