MAY12 86 OXFORD PREFACE. THE Sixth Reader, of the Revised Series of British Readers, differs from the Fifth only in being somewhat more advanced, It has been constructed with the view of meeting the require. ments of the Revised Code of 1884, and contains 60 lessons, averaging nearly 3 pages of reading matter apiece. The material of the lessons has been selected with great care, and Illustrative Notes have been largely employed with the view of assisting the pupil in his home preparation. With the same view, each lesson is followed by a series of pointed Questions bearing upon the salient points in the lesson. These questions are intended mainly for the scholar. If a question has been carefully prepared, it will enable the scholar to get at the pith of a statement much more clearly than by simply reading the text. Illustrations have been freely introduced; although, in respect to this matter, the Editor has never sacrificed the text for the sake of an Illustration. The text should, in all cases, lead up to the Illustration. The Illustration should never dominate the text. T. M. GLASGOW, February, 1885. The mode in which the Eskimaux dogs are employed in drawing the sledge; is described in a very striking manner by Captain Parry, in his "Journal of a Second Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage": "When drawing a sledge, the dogs have a simple harness (annoo) of deer or seal-skin, going round the neck by one bight, and another for each of the fore legs, with a single thong leading over the back, and attached to the sledge as a trace. Though they appear at first sight to be huddled together without regard to regularity, there is, in fact, considerable attention paid to their arrangement, particularly in the selection of a dog of peculiar spirit and sagacity, who is allowed, by a longer trace, to precede the rest as leader, and to whom, in turning to the right or left, the driver usually addresses himself. This choice is made. without regard to age or sex; and the rest of the dogs take precedency according to their training or sagacity, the least effective being put nearest the sledge. The leader is usually from eighteen to twenty feet from the fore part of the sledge, and the hindmost dog about half that distance ; so that when ten or twelve are running together, several are nearly abreast of each other. The driver sits quite low, on the fore part of the sledge, with his feet overhanging the snow on one side, and having in his hand a whip, of which the handle, made either of wood, bone, or whalebone, is eighteen inches, and the lash more than as many feet, in length: the part of the thong next the handle is plaited a little way down to stiffen it, and give it a spring, on which much of its use depends; and that which composes the lash is chewed by the women, to make it flexible in frosty weather. The men acquire from their youth considerable expertness in the use of this whip, the lash of which is left to trail along the ground by the side of the sledge, and with which they can inflict a very severe blow on any dog at pleasure. "In directing the sledge, the whip acts no very essential part, the driver for this purpose using certain words, as the carters do with us, to make the dogs turn more to the right or left. To these a good leader attends with admirable precision, especially if his own name be repeated at the same time, looking behind over his shoulder with great earnestness, as if listening to the directions of the driver. On a beaten track, or even where a foot or sledge-mark is occasionally discernible, there is not the slightest trouble in guiding the dogs for even in the darkest night, and in the heaviest snow-drift, there is little or no danger of their losing the road, the leader keeping his nose near the ground, and directing the rest with wonderful sagacity." The dogs of the Eskimaux offer to us a striking example of the great services which the race of dogs has rendered to mankind. |