Holsteinberg fiords where they hunt the reindeer in packs, and are habitually shot by the natives. Nevertheless, they evince a marked attachment to man," For," he says, "we have made a comfortable dog-house on Butter Island, but though within scent of our cheeses there, they cannot be persuaded to sleep away from the vessel. They prefer the bare snow, where they can couch within the sound of our voices, to a warm kennel upon the rocks. Strange that this dog-distinguishing trait of affection for man should show itself in an animal so imperfectly reclaimed from a savage state that he can hardly be caught when wanted! With a chain of provision-dépôts along the coast of Greenland, I could readily extend my travel by dogs. These noble animals form the basis of my future plans. My dogs were both Esquimaux and Newfoundland. The former were reserved for the great tug of the actual journeys of search. They were now in the semisavage condition which marks their close approach to the wolf. A hard experience had not then opened my eyes to the inestimable value of these dogs: I had yet to learn their power and speed, their patient enduring fortitude, their sagacity in tracking these icy morasses, among which they had been born and bred. On one occasion darkness came on us rapidly, and the snow began to drift before a heavy north-wind. While driving the dogs rapidly, we took a wrong direction, and travelled out toward the floating ice. There was no guide to the points of the compass; our Esquimaux were completely at fault, and the alarm of the dogs, which became every moment more manifest, extended itself to our party. The instinct of a sledge-dog makes him perfectly aware of unsafe ice, and I know nothing more subduing to a man than the

warnings of an unseen peril conveyed by the instinctive fears of the lower animals. The gale blew around us so fiercely that we could scarcely hold down the sledge. On a sudden I heard the sound of waves. I had hardly time for the hurried order, turn the dogs,' before a wreath of wet frost-smoke swept over us, and the sea showed itself, with a great fringe of foam, close ahead. The ice was breaking up before the storm. We could feel it undulating under our feet. Very soon it began to give way. We toiled over the crushed fragments, and at last reached shore with shouts of joy."

Speaking of another sledge-journey, he says,

"The spring-tides had broken up the ice, and the passage of the sledge was interrupted by fissures. The dogs (four Newfoundlands), began to flag; but we had to press them; we were only two men, and in the event of the animals failing to leap any of the rapidly-multiplying fissures, we could hardly expect to extricate our laden sledge. Three times in less than three hours my shaft or hinder dogs went in, and John and myself, who had been trotting alongside the sledge for sixteen miles, were nearly as tired as they were. The dogs failed in leaping a chasm that was somewhat wider than the others, and the whole concern came down in the water. I cut the lines instantly, and, with the aid of my companion, hauled the poor animals out. We owed the preservation of the sledge to their admirable docility and perseverance. After many fruitless struggles, they carried it forward at last upon the ice, and we gained the ice-belt under the cliffs. The dogs slept in the tent with us, giving it warmth as well as fragrance. What

perfumes of nature are lost at home upon our ungrateful senses! How we relished the companionship!"

The long dreary Arctic night had its influence on the dogs as well as the men :

"This long intense darkness was most depressing. Even our dogs, although the greater part of them were natives of the Arctic Circle, were unable to withstand it. Most of them died from an anomalous form of disease, to which the absence of light contributed as much as the extreme cold. This morning, January 20, at five o'clock, I went on deck. It was absolutely dark; not a glimmer came to me through the ice-crusted window-panes of the cabin. While I was feeling my way, half puzzled as to the best method of steering clear of whatever might be before me, two of my Newfoundland dogs put their cold noses against my hand, and immediately commenced the most exuberant antics of satisfaction. It then occurred to me how very dreary and forlorn must these poor animals be, at atmospheres at + 10 degrees in-doors and – 50 without,—living in darkness, howling at an accidental light, as if it reminded them of the moon,—and with nothing, either of instinct or sensation, to tell them of the passing hours, or to explain the long-lost daylight. They shall see the lanterns more frequently." . . . "The subject of the influence which our long winter night exerted on the health of these muchvalued animals has some interesting bearings.

"January 25.-The mouse-coloured dogs, the leaders of my Newfoundland team, have for the past fortnight been nursed like babies: no one can tell how anxious I watch them. They are kept below, tended, fed, cleansed, caressed, and

doctored, to the infinite discomfort of all hands. To-day I give up the last hope of saving them. The disease is as clearly mental as in the case of any human being. The more material functions of the poor brutes go on without interruption: they eat voraciously, retain their strength, and sleep well. But all the indications beyond this go to prove that the original epilepsy, which was the first manifestation of brain disease among them, has been followed by a true lunacy. They bark frenziedly at nothing, and walk in straight and curved lines with anxious and unwearying perseverance.

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They fawn on you, but without seeming to appreciate the notice you give them in return, pushing their heads against your person, or oscillating with a strange pantomime of fear. Their most intelligent actions seem automatic: sometimes they claw you, as if trying to burrow into your seal-skins; sometimes they remain for hours in moody silence, and then start off howling, as if pursued, and run up and down for hours.

"So it was with poor Flora, our 'wise dog.' She was seized with endemic spasms, and, after a few wild violent paroxysms, lapsed into a lethargic condition, eating voraciously, but gaining no strength. This passing off, the same crazy wildness took possession of her, and she died of brain disease (arachnoidal effusion) in about six weeks. Generally, they perish with symptoms resembling locked-jaw in less than thirty-six hours after the first attack.”

Kane says afterwards :

"September 14.-Tiger, our best remaining dog, the partner of poor Bruiser, was seized with a fit, ominously resembling the last winter's curse. In the delirium which followed his

seizure, he ran into the water and drowned himself, like a sailor with the horrors.

· March.-My dogs, that I counted on so largely, the nine splendid Newfoundlands and thirty-five Esquimaux, of six months before, had perished; there were only six survivors of the whole pack, and one of these was unfit for draught. Still they formed my principal reliance, and I busied myself from the very beginning of the month in training them to run together.

"March 31.—I was within an ace to-day of losing my dogs -every one of them. When I reached the ice-foot, they balked;-who would not? The tide was low, the ice rampant, and a jump of four feet necessary to reach the crest. The howling of the wind and the whirl of the snow-drift confused the poor creatures; but it was valuable training for them, and I strove to force them over. Of course I was on foot, and they had a light load behind them. 'Now, Stumpy!' 'Now, Whitey!' 'Good dogs!' 'Tu-lee-ēēēē!' 'Tuh!' They went at it like good staunch brutes, and the next minute the whole team was rolling in a lump, some sixteen feet below me, in the chasm of the ice-foot. The drift was such that at first I could not see them. The roaring of the tide and the subdued wail of the dogs, made me fear for the worst. I had to walk through the broken ice, which rose in toppling spires above my head, for nearly fifty yards, before I found an opening to the ice-face by which I was able to climb down to them. A few cuts of a sheath-knife released them, although the caresses of the dear brutes had like to have been fatal to me, for I had to straddle with one foot on the fast ice and the other on loose piled rubbish. But I got