to be heard when there is no aurora as
well as when there is. It is rare to stand on the banks of the Yukon on
a cold night and not hear some faint crepitating sounds, sometimes
running back and forth across the frozen river, sometimes resembling the
ring of distant skates. Without offering any pronouncement upon what is
a very interesting question, it seems to the writer possible that, to an
ear intently listening, some such noise coinciding with a decided
movement of a great auroral streamer might seem to be caused by the
movement it happened to accompany.

CHAPTER XIV

THE ALASKAN DOGS

[Sidenote: MALAMUTE, HUSKY, AND SIWASH]

THERE are two breeds of native dogs in Alaska, and a third that is
usually spoken of as such. The malamute is the Esquimau dog; and what
for want of a better name is called the "Siwash" is the Indian dog. Many
years ago the Hudson Bay voyageurs bred some selected strains of
imported dog with the Indian dogs of those parts, or else did no more
than carefully select the best individuals of the native species and
bred from them exclusively--it is variously stated--and that is the
accepted origin of the "husky." The malamute and the husky are the two
chief sources of the white man's dog teams, though cross-breeding with
setters and pointers, hounds of various sorts, mastiffs, Saint Bernards,
and Newfoundlands has resulted in a general admixture of breeds, so that
the work dogs of Alaska are an heterogeneous lot to-day. It should also
be stated that the terms "malamute" and "husky" are very generally
confused and often used interchangeably.

The malamute, the Alaskan Esquimau dog, is precisely the same dog as
that found amongst the natives of Baffin's Bay and Greenland. Knud
Rasmunsen and Amundsen together have established the oneness of the
Esquimaux from the east coast of Greenland all round to Saint Michael;
they are one people, speaking virtually one language. And the malamute
dog is one dog. A photograph that Admiral Peary prints of one of the
Smith Sound dogs that pulled his sled to the North Pole would pass for a
photograph of one of the present writer's team, bred on the Koyukuk
River, the parents coming from Kotzebue Sound.

There was never animal better adapted to environment than the malamute
dog. His coat, while it is not fluffy, nor the hair long, is yet so
dense and heavy that it affords him a perfect protection against the
utmost severity of cold. His feet are tough an