llow,
brown, and mottled. Some scientists believe that they are the direct
descendants of the Arctic wolf, yet, as a rule, they are as affectionate
and obedient to their masters as our own dogs at home. Their food is
meat, and meat only. That they cannot live on any other food I know,
for I have made the experiment. For water they eat snow.

[Illustration: THE WHALE BOAT RETURNING TO THE SHIP FROM THE WALRUS
HUNT]

The dogs are not housed at any season of the year; but summer and winter
they are tied somewhere near the tent or igloo. They are never allowed
to roam at large, lest they be lost. Sometimes a special pet, or a
female that has young puppies, will be taken into the igloo for a time;
but Eskimo puppies only a month old are so hardy that they can stand the
severe winter weather.

[Illustration: KING ESKIMO DOG]

Enough has been said to give the reader a general idea of these strange
people, that have been so valuable to me in my arctic work. But I want
to say again, at the risk of being misunderstood, that I hope no efforts
will ever be made to civilize them. Such efforts, if successful, would
destroy their primitive communism, which is necessary to preserve their
existence. Once give them an idea of real-estate interest and
personal-property rights in houses and food, and they might become as
selfish as civilized beings; whereas now any game larger than a seal is
the common property of the tribe and no man starves while his neighbors
are gorging themselves. If a man has two sets of hunting implements, he
gives one of them to the man who has none. It is this feeling of
good-fellowship which alone preserves the race. I have taught them some
of the fundamental principles of sanitation and the care of themselves,
the treatment of simple diseases, of wounds, and other accidents; but
there I think their civilization should stop. This opinion is not based
on theory or prejudice, but on eighteen years of intimate study and
experience.

[Illustration: THE CAPE JESUP GRENADIERS]

CHAPTER VIII

GETTING RECRUITS

When on August 1 the _Roosevelt_ steamed out from Cape York, she had on
board several Eskimo families which we had picked up there and at Salvo
Island. We also had about one hundred dogs, bought from the Eskimos.
When I say "bought," I do not mean paid for with money, as these people
have no money and no unit of value. All exchange between them is based
on the principle of pure barter. For insta