But we must leave the dogs, and turn to the sledge.
This was, in very truth, an ingenious specimen of native mechanical skill. It was made wholly of bone and leather. The runners, which were square behind and rounded upward in front, and about five feet long, seven inches high, and three-fourths of an inch thick, were slabs of bone; not solid, but made up of a number of pieces of various shapes and sizes, dexterously fitted and tightly lashed together. Some of these were not larger than one’s two fingers; some were three or four inches square; others were as large as one’s hand, and triangular in shape; others, again, were several inches in length, and two or three in breadth. They all fitted into their several places as exactly as the blocks of a Chinese puzzle. Near their margins ran rows of little holes, and through these strings of seal-skin were inserted, by which the blocks were fastened together, until the whole was as firm as a board.
The marvel of the thing is that all these pieces are flattened and cut into the required shape, not with nicely contrived instruments and tools, but with stones. The labour must be immense. The grinding needed to make a single runner must be the work of months. The construction of an entirely new sledge would probably occupy the lifetime of a generation; and hence a vehicle of this kind becomes a family heirloom, and is handed down from father to son, and son to grandson, and is constantly undergoing repair and restoration; a new piece here, another there, until as little remains of the original structure as of the sailor’s old knife, when it had had a new blade and a new handle! The origin of some of the Eskimo sledges is lost in the mists of a remote antiquity.
The runners are usually shod with ivory from the tusk of the walrus. The said ivory had likewise been ground flat, and its corners made square, with stones; and it was fastened to the runner by a string looped through two counter-sunk holes. The pieces of which it was composed were numerous; but the surface was wonderfully uniform, and as smooth as glass.
The runners stood about fourteen inches apart, and were fastened together by bones, tightly lashed to them; the bones used being the femur of the bear, the antlers of the reindeer, and the ribs of the narwhal. Two walrus-ribs, lashed one to the after-end of each runner, served as upstanders, and were braced by a piece of reindeer antler, secured across the top.
Having thus disposed of the team and the sledge, we now come to the equipment.
First, one of the Eskimo hunters spread a piece of seal-skin over the sledge, fastening it securely by little strings attached to its margin. On this he placed a small piece of walrus-skin, as a provision for the dogs; a piece of blubber for fuel; and of meat for his own lunch. During his absence he would cook no food, but he would want water; and therefore he carried his kotluk, or lamp—namely, a small stone dish; a lump of mannek or dried moss, designed for the wick; and some willow-blossoms (na-owinals) for tinder. To ignite the tinder, he had a piece of iron-stone and a small sharp fragment of flint.
