The malamute, the Alaskan Esquimau dog, is precisely the same dog as
that found amongst the natives of Baffin's Bay and Greenland. Knud
Rasmunsen and Amundsen together have established the oneness of the
Esquimaux from the east coast of Greenland all round to Saint Michael;
they are one people, speaking virtually one language. And the malamute
dog is one dog. A photograph that Admiral Peary prints of one of the
Smith Sound dogs that pulled his sled to the North Pole would pass for a
photograph of one of the present writer's team, bred on the Koyukuk
River, the parents coming from Kotzebue Sound.
There was never animal better adapted to environment than the malamute
dog. His coat, while it is not fluffy, nor the hair long, is yet so
dense and heavy that it affords him a perfect protection against the
utmost severity of cold. His feet are tough and clean, and do not
readily accumulate snow between the toes and therefore do not easily get
sore--which is the great drawback of nearly all "outside" dogs and their
mixed progeny. He is hardy and thrifty and does well on less food than
the mixed breeds; and, despite Peary to the contrary, he will eat
anything. "He will not eat anything but meat," says Peary; "I have tried
and I know." No dog accustomed to a flesh diet willingly leaves it for
other food; the dog is a carnivorous animal. But hunger will whet his
appetite for anything that his bowels can digest. "Muk," the counterpart
of Peary's "King Malamute," has thriven for years on his daily ration of
dried fish, tallow, and rice, and eats biscuits and doughnuts whenever
he can get them. The malamute is affectionate and faithful and likes to
be made a pet of, but he is very jealous and an incorrigible fighter. He
has little of the fawning submissiveness of pet dogs "outside," but is
independent and self-willed and apt to make a troublesome pet. However,
pets that give little trouble seldom give much pleasure.
His comparative shortness of leg makes him somewhat better adapted to
the hard, crusted snow of the coast than to the soft snow of the
interior, but he is a ceaseless and tireless worker who loves to pull.
His prick ears, always erect, his bushy, graceful tail, carried high
unless it curl upon the back as is the case with some, his compact coat
of silver-grey, his sharp muzzle and black nose and quick narrow eyes
give him an air of keenness and alertness that marks him out amongst
dogs. When he is in good condition and his coat is taken care of he is a
handsome fellow, and he will weigh from seventy-five to eighty-five or
ninety pounds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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