Buck's first day on the Dyea beach was like a nightmare. He had been taken from the heart of civilization and thrown into the heart of something primitive. Here there was neither peace nor rest, and every moment life was in danger. Curly, a friendly dog who had travelled with him, tried to make friends with a husky. The husky attacked like lightning and jumped away, and in an instant forty others surrounded her. When she fell, they tore her to pieces. Buck saw Spitz, the lead dog, laughing with his red tongue out, and from that moment he hated him. So that was the way: no fair play. Once down, that was the end of you. Buck learned quickly. He learned to dig a bed in the snow, to steal food and to fight like a wolf. Old instincts, long forgotten, were coming alive in him again.