Of late years explorers have turned their attention to the South Pole, and in Antarctic regions not only dogs but small, hardy ponies have been employed.
In Lapland, the most northern country of Europe, the natives keep large herds of reindeer, and they use these animals to draw their sledges, which are shaped like boats, being flat at the back and with high-pointed prows. The reindeer are harnessed by leather traces fastened to their collars, and the reins are tied to their horns. The harness is hung with small bells which jingle merrily as the sledge flies across the hard snow. Old writers say that these animals were so swift that they could carry their masters for two hundred miles in a single day. This, of course, is merely a traveller's tale, but they can really go fifty or sixty miles in twenty-four hours.
INDIAN TRAPPER ON SNOW-SHOES.
Sledges are used in other European countries and especially in Russia, where the winters are long and hard. The Russian sledges are very picturesque, with their four horses harnessed abreast and their drivers wearing great padded coats and fur gloves to protect them from the intense cold. Sledging in Russia is, however, not without its dangers, and there are many stories of travellers who have been frozen to death, and of others who have been overtaken and killed by wolves as they drove across the snow-covered plains and through the forests.
A writer of fifty years ago tells us of an exciting experience which he and a fellow-traveller had when journeying in the Volga district after a heavy snowstorm.
It was early morning when they started, and the road was a very lonely one. They had not gone far when six large wolves were seen, and although these animals were frightened away by a handful of burning hay being flung among them—for wolves cannot bear the sight of fire—they soon returned. Others joined them, and before long the sledge was tearing across the snow with a whole pack in close pursuit. The horses were terrified and the position seemed a hopeless one, but fortunately the travellers were armed, and when they had managed to shoot four of the wolves the others dispersed.
Sledges are also used in Austria, Germany, and Holland, and in many museums quaint old Dutch sledges can be seen, shaped like armchairs and richly gilded and painted.
These dainty sleds were pushed, not drawn, and in them the fair-haired Dutch maidens of former days were taken for merry excursions by their brothers and boy friends along the smooth highways of the frozen canals.