Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/238

 to be a sufficient cause. Being almost wholly without fresh food of any kind, he was compelled to subsist his teams upon salt meats, which, giving scurvy to his men, could hardly be expected to act otherwise than injuriously upon the dogs, which had always before been used to a fresh diet of seal meat.

My hopeful anticipations were, however, not realized. One day early in December Jensen reported to me that one of the finest animals had been attacked with the disease, and recommended that it should be shot, to prevent the disease spreading; and this was accordingly done. A few hours afterwards another one was seized in the same manner. The symptoms were at first those of great restlessness. The animal ran several times around the ship, first one way and then the other, with a vague uncertainty in its gait, and with an alternate raising and lowering of the head and tail, every movement indicative of great nervous excitement. After a while it started off toward the mouth of the harbor, barking all the while and seeming to be in mortal dread of some imaginary object from which it was endeavoring to fly. In a little while it came back, still more excited than before. These symptoms rapidly increased in violence, the eyes became bloodshot, froth ran from the mouth, and the dog became possessed of an apparently uncontrollable desire to snap at every thing which came in its way.

The disease ran its course in a few hours. Weakness and prostration followed the excitement, and the poor animal staggered around the vessel, apparently unable to see its way, and finally fell over in a fit. After struggling for a little while in the snow, consciousness returned, and it got again upon its feet.