through a loop, all three loops joining over the back and fastened to a
long seal-skin line. These lines are of different lengths, so as to
allow the dogs to pull to greater advantage than if all the traces were
of the same length, causing the dogs to spread out like a fan. At every
few miles the traces have to be unloosened and extricated from the most
abominable tangle that it is possible to conceive. This comes from a
habit the dogs have of constantly running under and over the other
traces to avoid the whip, or in some cases merely from a spirit of pure
deviltry.

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