s thieves. I never could completely break an Esquimaux dog of
this propensity. It seemed ingrained in their very natures. I have
purchased young puppies of this breed from the natives, have fed them
well, and have faithfully endeavoured to bring them up in the way in
which they ought to go, but I never could get them to stay there. Steal
they would, and did, whenever they had an opportunity.

This serious defect may have been the result of the constant and
unremitting neglect with which Indians generally treat their dogs. They
are fond of them in a way, and are unwilling to part with them, except
at a good price; yet, except when working them, they very seldom feed
them. The dogs are generally left to steal their living, and some of
them become very clever at it, as more than once I found to my sorrow.
When the fisheries are successful, or many deer have been killed, the
dogs, like their owners, are fat and flourishing. When food is scarce,
the dogs' allowance is the first cut off. We could always tell at a
glance, when a band of wild, wandering pagan Indians came in to visit
our village from their distant hunting grounds, how they had prospered.
If they and their dogs were fat and good-natured, they had had abundance
of food. If, while the people looked fairly well, the dogs were thin
and wolfish, we knew they had fared but moderately. If the dogs were
all gone and the people looked gaunt and famine-stricken, we knew they
had had hard times, and, as a last resort, had eaten their poor dogs to
keep themselves alive.

Some of the Indians who make a pretence to feed their dogs in winter
never think of doing so in summer. The result is that, as they have to
steal, hunt, or starve, they become adepts in one or the other.
Everything that is eatable, and many things apparently uneatable, are
devoured by them. They fairly howled with delight when they found
access to such things as old leather moccasins, dog harness, whips, fur
caps, mitts, and similar things. They greedily devoured all they could,
and then most cunningly buried the rest. Many of them go off in summer-
time on long fishing excursions. I once, when away on a canoe trip, met
a pack of them up a great river over a hundred miles from their home.
When we first saw them at a long distance, we mistook them for wolves,
and began to prepare for battle. The quick eyes of my Indian canoe men
soon saw what they were, and putting down our guns, we spent a l