k of
dogs have had a fight, and got their traces hopelessly ravelled (as is
often the case), they have been known to fall on their knees in their
passion, seize one of the poor dogs by the nose with their teeth, and
almost bite it off. Dogs are also used for dragging carioles, which
vehicles are used by gentlemen in the Company's service who are either
too old or too lazy to walk on snow-shoes. The cariole is in form not
unlike a slipper bath, both in shape and size. It is lined with buffalo
robes, in the midst of a bundle of which the occupant reclines
luxuriously, while the dogs drag him slowly through the soft snow, and
among the trees and bushes of the forest, or scamper with him over the
hard-beaten surface of a lake or river; while the machine is prevented
from capsizing by a _voyageur_ who walks behind on snow-shoes, holding
on to a line attached to the back part of the cariole. The weather
during winter is so cold that it is often a matter of the greatest
difficulty for the traveller to keep his toes from freezing, despite the
buffalo robes; and sometimes, when the dogs start fresh in the morning,
with a good breakfast, a bright, clear, frosty day, and a long expanse
of comparatively open country before them, where the snow from exposure
has become quite hard, away they go with a loud yelp, upsetting the
driver in the bolt, who rises to heap undeserved and very improper
epithets upon the poor brutes, who, careering over the ground at the
rate of eleven miles an hour, swing the miserable cariole over the snow,
tear it through the bushes, bang it first on one side, then on the
other, against stumps and trees, yelling all the while, partly with
frantic glee at the thought of having bolted, and partly with fearful
anticipation of the tremendous welting that is to come; until at last
the cariole gets jammed hard and fast among the trees of the forest, or
plunges down the steep bank of a river head over heels till they reach
the foot--a horrible and struggling compound of dogs, traveller, traces,
parchment, buffalo robes, blankets, and snow!

Christmas morning dawned, and I opened my eyes to behold the sun
flashing brightly on the window, in its endeavours to make a forcible
entry into my room, through the thick hoar-frost which covered the
panes. Presently I became aware of a gentle breathing near me, and,
turning my eyes slowly round, I beheld my companion Crusty standing on
tiptoe, with a tremendous grin on hi