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Show THE "BOSS" SYSTEM AMONG ESQUIMAUX DOGS. There is always, says a traveler in the Arctic regions, one bully in every team, who gets all the choice bits that are stolen by the others, and generally manages to keep fat, no matter how short they are of provisions. He waits for the others to make the raid, and then stands on the outside to take it away from them. The bullies are in several grades. There is the chief, of whom all are afraid, and then there is the next of rank, of whom all are afraid but the chief; a third of whom all are afraid but two, and so on down. Sometimes the food is cut into small pieces and thrown out upon the ice for all to help themselves, and then there is a rough-and-tumble fight, and snarling and growling as if a whole cage of hyenas had broken loose. But here the bullies have no advantage; indeed, the advantage is with the small lively fellows that slip in and get the meal while the big ones are fighting. When a dog manages to steal a piece of meat he has a lively time of it, for soon every other dog in the camp is after him, and he has to eat it on the run, if at all, headed off at every turn by one of the bullies, and winning and choking at the same time. It certainly is one of the most comical exhibitions ever witnessed. |