Next morning, when Buck awakens, he feels the weight of the night's snow pressing down upon him, and "a great surge of fear swept through him — the fear of the wild thing for the trap." London, quite pointedly, goes on to say that this fear was "a token that [Buck] was harking back through his own life to the lives of his forebears." London writes, "the muscles of [Buck's] whole body contracted spasmodically and instinctively," and bursting out through the layer of snow, he sees the camp spread out before him. That day, Buck has another experience learning to be a sled dog, similar to the incident referred to earlier in these Notes. Buck is now placed between Dave and Sol-leks, who are both experienced dogs and who will teach Buck how to perform. When Buck makes a mistake, both dogs instantly "administer a sound trouncing to him." Buck learns very quickly, and at the end of that day, he is exhausted; after digging his hole in the snow, he falls quickly asleep.
For days, Buck is constantly "in the traces," and even though he is given a half pound of food a day more than the other dogs, he never seems to have enough, and he suffers from perpetual hunger pains. This is due partly to the fact that Buck is a civilized dog and a fastidious eater, and the other dogs wolf down their food, then come over and steal Buck's rations. Buck quickly learns, however, that in order to survive, he too must wolf down his food. In a civilized society, Buck would never have had to steal food, but now he realizes that in order to survive and thrive in this hostile northern environment, he will have to learn to steal in very secret and clever ways. According to London, Buck's thefts of food "marked the decay or going to pieces of his moral nature." But what Buck is learning is that in such a wilderness as this, his old sense of morality is a hindrance to survival.
Buck, however, reasons that in order to survive, he must adjust — in every way he can. It was one thing to respect private property in the Southland, where the law of love and fellowship reigned, but here in the Northland, "under the law of club and fang, it was foolhardy to observe any law that did not contribute to one's own personal survival." London writes that, although Buck did not exactly figure this out in "thoughts," the man in the red sweater had taught him about this very fundamental and primitive code. Buck's "decivilization was now almost complete because he did not steal out of joy," and "he did not rob openly, but, instead, he stole secretly and cunningly out of respect for club and fang."
