P. 359), that dog-sledges appear
to have been known to the Chinese, for in a Chinese poem occurs the line:
"Over the thick snow in a dog-cart." - H.C.]
The bigness attributed to the dogs by Polo, Ibn Batuta, and Rubruquis, is
an imagination founded on the work ascribed to them. Mr. Kennan says they
are simply half-domesticated Arctic wolves. Erman calls them the height of
European spaniels (qu. setters?), but much slenderer and leaner in the
flanks. A good draught-dog, according to Wrangell, should be 2 feet high
and 3 feet in length. The number of dogs attached to a sledge is usually
greater than the old travellers represent, - none of whom, however, had
seen the thing.
Wrangell's account curiously illustrates what Ibn Batuta says of the Old
Dog who guides: "The best-trained and most intelligent dog is often yoked
in front.... He often displays extraordinary sagacity and influence over
the other dogs, e.g. in keeping them from breaking after game. In such a
case he will sometimes turn and bark in the opposite direction; ... and in
crossing a naked and boundless tundra in darkness or snow-drift he will
guess his way to a hut that he has never visited but once before" (I.
159). Kennan also says: "They are guided and controlled entirely by the
voice and by a lead-dog, who is especially trained for the purpose." The
like is related of the Esquimaux dogs. (Kennarts Tent Life in Siberia,
pp. 163-164; Wood's Mammalia, p. 266.)
NOTE 4. - On the Erculin and Ercolin of the G.T., written Arculin in
next chapter, Arcolino of Ramusio, Herculini of Pipino, no light is
thrown by the Italian or other editors. One supposes of course some animal
of the ermine or squirrel kinds affording valuable fur, but I can find no
similar name of any such animal. It may be the Argali or Siberian Wild
Sheep, which Rubruquis mentions: "I saw another kind of beast which is
called Arcali; its body is just like a ram's, and its horns spiral like
a ram's also, only they are so big that I could scarcely lift a pair of
them with one hand. They make huge drinking-vessels out of these" (p.
230). [See I. p. 177.]
Vair, so often mentioned in mediaeval works, appears to have been a name
appropriate to the fur as prepared rather than to the animal. This appears
to have been the Siberian squirrel called in French petit-gris, the back
of which is of a fine grey and the belly of a brilliant white. In the
Vair (which is perhaps only varius or variegated) the backs and
bellies were joined in a kind of checquer; whence the heraldic checquer
called by the same name. There were two kinds, menu-vair corrupted into
minever, and gros-vair, but I cannot learn clearly on what the
distinction rested.
