Читать книгу The White Czar. A Story of a Polar Bear онлайн

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Finally Eiseeyou slipped on a heavy pair of reindeer skin gloves and he was dressed and ready for the trip as far as warm furs could make him. His rifle, his hunting knife, his matches, and all such things that he might need on the hunt were carefully inspected.

Outside the igloo eight half starved Eskimo dogs were fighting and snarling over their dried fish. They were but one generation removed from the wolf and wolfish in looks and disposition. The Eskimo drives them relentlessly with his short-handled whip, on which is a long black sinister lash. This lash is often inadequate to express his displeasure, so he sometimes gets off the sledge, called a Komatik, and clubs a dog to death with the bone handle of his whip. Life in this wild, fierce country matches the clime, so it is often very brutal.

Although the snow blew and the wind howled outside, yet inside the igloo it was fairly warm. The body heat of Eiseeyou's little family together with the heat of the nanuk or stone lamp tempered the Arctic cold.