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.

It often happens that there are not a sufficient number of dogs, or
that they are poor and unable to travel with sufficient rapidity, and
then the people have to put on harness and help. First the women and
children engage in this labor, and, lastly, the men. And the drivers
will sit on the sled and smoke, with the utmost composure, while their
wives and daughters are tugging in the harness. The women do not mind
this treatment, for they are accustomed to it and look upon it as the
proper thing. In the summer the Esquimaux use their dogs while