The leader of the dog team is the best disciplined dog in the team but not always by any means the “boss” dog, or bully, of the pack.  Every pack has its bully and generally, also, its under dog that all the others pick upon.  Eskimo dogs fight among themselves, but the packs hold together as a gang against strange packs, and when sledges meet each other on the trail the drivers must exert their utmost effort and caution, and wield the whip freely, or there will be a fine mix-up, resulting often in crippled animals.

The komatik or sledge used in dog travel is from ten to fourteen feet in length, though in the far north I have seen them a full eighteen feet long.  In the extreme north of Labrador, where the largest ones are found, they are but sixteen inches wide.  Further south, in the region where the mission hospitals are situated, from ten to twelve feet is the usual length and about two feet the breadth.

In Alaska and the Northwest dogs are harnessed tandem, that is one in front of another in a straight line.  This is a white man’s method, and a fine method too when driving through timbered regions.

But in Labrador dog travel is usually on the naked coast and seldom in timbered country, and here the old Eskimo method is used.  Each dog has its individual trace, which is fastened to the end of a single line of walrus skin leading from the komatik and called the bridle.  The leading dog, which is especially trained to answer the driver’s direction, has the longest trace, the next two dogs nearer the komatik shorter ones, the next two still shorter, and so on.  Thus, when they travel the leader is in advance with the pack spread out behind him on either side, fan-shaped.  Dogs follow the leader like a pack of wolves.

When the driver wishes the dogs to go forward he shouts “oo-isht,” and to hurry “oksuit."[E] If he wishes them to turn to the right he calls “ouk!”, to the left “rah-der!”, and to stop “Ah!”

In Newfoundland “Hist!” means “Go on”; “Keep off!” “to the right”; “Hold on!” “to the left.”  The dogs are harnessed in a similar manner to that used in Labrador, and the sledges are of the same form, though of the widest type.

When the dogs are put in harness in preparation for a journey they are always keen for the start.  They will leap and howl in eagerness to be off unless the menace of a whip compels them to lie down.  When the driver is ready he shouts “oo-isht!” to the dogs, as he pulls the nose of the komatik sharply to one side to “break” it loose from the snow.  Immediately the dogs are away at a mad gallop, with the komatik swinging wildly from side to side.  Quickly enough the animals settle down to a slow pace, only to spurt if game is scented or on approaching a building.

The usual dog whip is thirty or thirty-five feet in length, though I have seen them nearly fifty feet long.  Eskimo drivers are exceedingly expert in handling the long whip, and in the hands of a cruel driver it is an instrument of torture.  In southeastern and southern Labrador and in Newfoundland the dog whip is used much less freely than in the north, and the people are less expert in its manipulation than are the Eskimos.  The different species of dogs renders the use of the whip less necessary.