quire a
habit of pulling, in their attempts to recover their liberty, or to
roam in quest of their mother. When about two months old, they are put
into the sledge with the grown dogs, and sometimes eight or ten little
ones are under the charge of some steady old animal, where, with
frequent and sometimes severe beatings, they soon receive a competent
education. Every dog is distinguished by a particular name, and the
angry repetition of it has an effect as instantaneous as an
application of the whip, which instrument is of an immense length,
having a lash from eighteen to twenty-four feet, while the handle is
one foot only; with this, by throwing it on one side or the other of
the leader, and repeating certain words, the animals are guided or
stopped. When the sledge is stopped they are all taught to lie down,
by throwing the whip gently over their backs, and they will remain in
this position even for hours, until their master returns to them. A
walrus is frequently drawn along by three or four of these dogs, and
seals are sometimes carried home in the same manner, though I have in
some instances seen a dog bring home the greater part of a seal in
panniers placed across his back. The latter mode of conveyance is
often used in summer, and the dogs also carry skins or furniture
overland to the sledges when their masters are going on any
expedition. It might be supposed that in so cold a climate these
animals had peculiar periods of gestation, like the wild creatures,
but, on the contrary, they bear young at every season of the year, and
seldom exceed five at a litter. Cold has very little effect on them;
for although the dogs at the huts slept within the snow passages, mine
at the ships had no shelter, but lay alongside, with the thermometer
at 42 deg. and 44 deg., and with as little concern as if the weather had been
mild. I found, by several experiments, that three of my dogs could
draw me on a sledge, weighing one hundred pounds, at the rate of one
mile in six minutes; and as a proof of the strength of a well-grown
dog, my leader drew one hundred and ninety-six pounds singly, and to
the same distance, in eight minutes. At another time seven of my dogs
ran a mile in four minutes, drawing a heavy sledge full of men.
Afterwards, in carrying stores to the Fury, one mile distant, nine
dogs drew one thousand six hundred and eleven pounds in the space of
nine minutes. My sledge was on runners, neither shod nor iced; but had
t