"The dogs have much resemblance to the wolf. They have long, pointed, projecting noses, sharp and upright ears, and a long bushy tail; some have smooth and some have curly hair; their colour is various-black, brown, reddishbrown, white, and spotted. They vary also in size; but it is considered that a good sledge-dog should not be less than two feet seven and a half inches in height, and three feet three quarters of an inch in length.

"Their barking is like the howling of a wolf. They pass their whole life in the open air; in summer they dig holes in the ground for coolness, or lie in the water to avoid the musquitos:1 in winter they protect themselves by burrowing in the snow, and lie curled up, with their noses covered by their bushy tails. The female puppies are drowned, except enough to preserve the breed, the males alone being used in draught. Those born in winter enter on their training the following autumn, but are not used in long journeys until the third year. The feeding and training is a particular art, and much skill is required in driving and guiding them. The best trained dogs are used as leaders, and as the quick and steady going of the team, usually of twelve dogs, and the safety of the traveller, depend on the sagacity and docility of the leader, no pains are spared in their education; so that they may always obey their master's voice, and not be tempted from their course when they come on the scent of

game.

"This last is a point of great difficulty: sometimes the whole team, in such cases, will start off, and no endeavours

1 Dogs also lie in the Nile, in Egypt, in the hot weather.

1

on the part of the driver can stop them. On such occasions we have sometimes had to admire the cleverness with which the well-trained leader endeavours to turn the other dogs from their pursuit; if other devices fail, he will suddenly wheel round, and by barking, as if he had come on a new scent, try to induce the other dogs to follow him. In travelling across the wide tundra, in dark nights, or when the vast plain is veiled in impenetrable mist, or in stormy or snowtempests, when the traveller is in danger of missing the sheltering powarna, and of perishing in the snow, he will frequently owe his safety to a good leader; if the animal has ever been in this plain, and has stopped with his master at the powarna, he will be sure to bring the sledge to the place where the hut lies deeply buried in the snow; when arrived at it he will suddenly stop, and indicate, significantly, the spot where his master must dig.

"Nor are the dogs without their use in summer; they tow the boats up the rivers, and it is curious to observe how instantly they obey their master's voice, either in halting or in changing the bank of the river. On hearing his call they plunge into the water, draw the towing-line after them, and swim after the boat to the opposite shore; and, on reaching it, replace themselves in order, and wait the command to go Sometimes even, those who have no horses will use the dogs in fowling excursions, to draw their light boats from one lake or river to another. In short, the dog is fully as useful and indispensable a domestic animal to the settled inhabitant of this country, as the tame rein-deer is to the nomade tribes.

on.

1 Moss steppes.

They regard it as such. We saw a remarkable instance of this during the terrible sickness, which, in the year 1821, carried off the greater part of these useful animals.

“An unfortunate Juhakir family had only two dogs left out of twenty, and these were just born, and indeed still blind. The mother being dead, the wife of the Juhakir determined on nursing the two puppies with her own child, rather than lose the last remains of their former wealth. She did so, and was rewarded for it, for her two nurselings lived, and became the parents of a new and vigorous race of dogs.

"In the year 1822, when most of the inhabitants had lost their dogs by the sickness, they were in a most melancholy condition; they had to draw home their own fuel; and both time and strength failed them in bringing home the fish which had been caught in distant places; moreover, whilst thus occupied, the season passed for fowling and fur-hunting; and a general and severe famine, in which numbers perished, was the consequence. Horses cannot be made a substitute: the severity of the climate, and the shortness of the summer, make it impossible to provide sufficient fodder; the light dog can also move quickly over the deep snow, in which the heavy horse would sink."

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Having thus described the out-of-door life and employments of the people of this district, let us accompany an individual" into his flat-roofed, earth-covered" habitation (twelve to eighteen feet square and nine high, made of the scarce driftwood collected at the spring floods), at the close of summer, when he and his family rest from all these laborious efforts, and enjoy life after their manner. The walls are caulked afresh with moss; new plastered with clay" (or

lime?) "and a solid mound of earth is heaped up on the outside as high as the windows," which are small, always face the south, and are covered in summer with fish membranes, and in winter with plates of ice. This is accomplished before December, when the long winter nights assemble the members of the family around the hearth. The light of the fire, and that of one or more train-oil lamps, is seen through the icewindows; and from the low chimneys rise high columns of red smoke, with magnificent jets of sparks, occasioned by the resinous nature of the wood. "A low door, over which hangs the thick skin of a white bear, or of a rein-deer, leads into the dwelling room. There the father and his sons are seen making nets of horse-hair, and preparing bows, arrows, spears, &c. The women are sitting on the benches, or the ground, making the skins which the men have brought home, into different garments, in doing which they use rein-deer sinews instead of thread.

"Two large iron kettles are hanging over the fire, in which are boiling fish for the dogs. One of the women prepares the frugal dinner or supper, which usually consists of either fish or rein-deer meat, boiled or fried in train oil.". . . . “If a travelling guest arrives, all that is best in the larder is produced, smoked rein-deer tongues, melted rein-deer fat, frozen Jakut butter, &c. The table is covered, instead of a table cloth, with several folds of an old fishing net, and instead of napkins, thin rolled up shavings of wood are used. Salt seldom appears, and at any rate is only for the guest: the natives never use it, and even dislike it, as also do the Tchuktches, a strong and powerful race. Bread is everywhere rare. If the fisheries and huntings have been productive, and they are

safe from hunger, and if tea and brandy are not wanting, they are content, and to a certain degree happy. They are a vigorous race, usually above the middle height, and well looking."... "Near the house, and on the roof, are scaffolds for drying fish and there is a small out-house for sheltering the dogs in extreme cold weather; but they are more generally tethered outside, and bury themselves in the snow." From time to time their howling interrupts the general silence; it is so loud as to be heard at great distances, and is repeated at intervals, usually of six or eight hours, except when the moon shines, when it is much more frequent.

It was once unwisely proposed to forbid the keeping of dogs on account of the quantity of fish required for their support, which is thus withdrawn from the food of the inhabitants. Each sledge, of twelve dogs, requires daily from fifty to seventy herrings, or if dried, eight or ten for each dog. But if this measure had been adopted, so far from increasing the quantity of food at the command of the inhabitants, it would have deprived them of one of their chief means of procuring subsistence, as was most clearly proved at the time of the great mortality amongst the dogs in 1821 and 1823. This highly injudicious proposal was happily rejected by the government.

"In 1821, to the want of provisions was added a new misfortune, hitherto almost unknown in the Nijnei Kolymsk district, namely, a wide-spreading malady amongst the dogs. This disease had shown itself during the summer on the banks of the Lena, the Jana, and the Indigirka. Very soon after the beginning of winter it reached the banks of the Kolyma. As our intended journey over the ice depended on