The leader of the team is a dog selected for his intelligence, and is
one known as setting an example of constant industry under all
circumstances. You will always see the leader of a team of dogs working
as if the load was being drawn by him alone. He goes along, his head
bent over and tugging in his harness, his mouth open and tongue lolling
out, while his ears are ever ready to hear the word of command from the
driver. To go to the left, the command is given, "Ah'-root," and to the
right, "Why-ah'-wah-ha." Then he sometimes, to encourage or urge to
greater exertion, says, "Ah-wah-hagh-oo-ar." To stop the team he says
"Woah," as one says when driving horses. It is the noisiest method of
travel yet invented, for the driver is constantly talking to his team,
calling each by name, and usually following the word with a blow of the
whip, so that the next time that dog is spoken to, he will understand
that it means "hurry up." The conversation with a dog team is
incessant, and the work of the driver is not confined to his team
alone. He has to constantly keep watch over the front of the sled, to
turn it to the right or left in order to avoid hummocks or stones that
would upset the load or tear the ice from the bottom of the runners.
Inuits are fond of riding on the sled while travelling, and as long as
there is a spot that would hold one they will pile up there. But should
there be no place for them, they will run alongside without apparent
discomfort for almost any length of time or distance. This is equally
true of the children of both sexes, and when any are compelled to walk,
for lack of dogs or of room on the sled, it is the women and girls who
have to give way to the men and boys. With a light sled, and from nine
to fifteen good strong dogs, the Esquimaux of North Hudson's Bay will
sometimes make a journey of from eighty to one hundred miles during the
long days of spring. A light sled has reference to one with nothing on
it except the skins for the beds, a lamp and small quantity of oil,
with not more than one or two days' rations of food. The same number of
dogs will drag a sled, with about fifteen hundred pounds of load, at
the rate of three or four miles an hour over the smooth salt-water ice
and snow. When travelling with light sleds all the party ride, except
when necessary to run for the purpose of getting warm. In travelling,
and especially when starting from a halt, some one runs ahead of the
team so as to get them to pull together. When the sleds are heavily
loaded the start is effected in the same way, and the driver, gathering
the reins in his hands, pulls back with all his might until he sees
every dog straining against his collar, when he lets go his hold and
all spring forward together.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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