ICE-BOAT.
Arctic travellers soon found that if they wished to journey far into the Polar regions they must needs adopt native customs, so they bought sledges and either dragged them themselves or hired guides and teams of dogs. It is no easy matter to drive one of these Esquimaux sledges, for the dogs are harnessed in single file and are only controlled by the voice of the driver or by the long flexible whip which he carries. The speed at which a sledge can be drawn depends very much on the condition of the snow, but if it is hard and smooth forty or fifty miles can be covered in a single day.
REINDEER AND SLEDGE.
After Sir John Franklin's expedition had disappeared in the unknown Arctic world, many parties set out in search of him. The leader of one of these, Captain Austin, tried a new means of progression, and on one occasion attached sails and large kites to his sledges. This experiment seems to have met with some success, but we do not hear of it being attempted again, although ice-boats are sailed as an amusement during the winter months on the frozen lakes and rivers of Canada and the United States. Snow-shoes are widely used in Canada during the winter. Hunters and trappers make long journeys over the snow in search of fur or visiting their traps.
EXPLORERS DRAGGING SLEDGE.