Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XVI. Ice-bound in the Arctic Sea
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rivers are stronger and hardier than the majority of
Samoyede dogs. Their general appearance, and especially their
coat, resembles very much that of the wolf. The tail
is not curly as in the ordinary dog, but hangs down like
that of the wolf; they do not bark like the dog, but have
a distinctly wolf-like howl, and when you are awakened by
their regular howling at midnight every night, you can
hardly free yourself from the impression that you are
listening to a chorus of wolves.
To each sledge with its ordinary load of, say, 450 lbs.
twelve or thirteen dogs are as a rule attached. Unlike
the Samoyedes and the Greenlanders, who fasten each
dog to the sledge by means of a separate leather rope,
the natives in the region of the lower Lena use one
common trace, made of leather, to which the dogs are
attached on each side by means of short thongs, while at
the end is harnessed the peredovoi, or leader. This plan has
the advantage of preventing the dogs from becoming entangled
in a multiplicity of ropes, but, on the other hand, a certain
amount of traction-power is lost owing to the trace of each
dog forming an angle to the common trace. The dogs
are steered, not by reins, but by word of command from
their lord and master, which they obey very well as long
as they do not scent any game; but if they are hungry
and get the scent, for instance, of a reindeer, they will rush
away after it until little is left of the sledge behind them
but splinters. To check the pace or stop the dogs the
driver ordinarily uses an iron-shod pole as a brake.
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