o chase is the wolf, of which the
greater part of them seem to have an instinctive dread, giving notice at
night of their approach to the huts by a loud and continued howl. There
is not one dog in twenty among them that will voluntarily, or, indeed,
without a great deal of beating, take the water, if they think it is out
of their depth, and the few that would do so were spoken of as
extraordinary exceptions.

The Esquimaux in general treat their dogs much as an unfeeling master
does his slaves; that is, they take just as much care of them as their
own interest is supposed to require. The bitches with young are in the
winter allowed to occupy a part of their own beds, where they are
carefully attended and fed by the women, who will even supply the young
ones with meat and water from their mouths as they do their own
children, and not unfrequently also carry them in their hoods to take
care of them. It is probably on this account that the dogs are always so
much attached to the women, who can at any time catch them or entice
them from the huts when the men fail. Two females that were with young
on board the Fury in the month of February, brought forth six and seven
at a litter, and the former number were all females. Their feeding,
which, both in summer and winter, principally consists of k=a~ow, or
the skin and part of the blubber of the walrus, is during the latter
season very precarious, their masters having then but little to spare.
They therefore become extremely thin at that time of the year, and would
scarcely be recognised as the same animals as when regularly fed in the
summer. No wonder, therefore, that they will eat almost anything,
however tough or filthy, and that neither whipping nor shouting will
prevent their turning out of the road, even when going at full speed, to
pick up whatever they espy. When at the huts they are constantly
creeping in to pilfer what they can, and half the time of the people
sitting there is occupied in vociferating their names, and driving them
by most unmerciful blows out of the apartments. The dogs have no water
to drink during the winter, but lick up some clean snow occasionally as
a substitute; nor, indeed, if water be offered them, do they care about
it, unless it happens to be oily. They take great pleasure in rolling in
clean snow, especially after or during a journey, or when they have been
confined in a house during the night. Notwithstanding the rough
treatment which they