5o8 TRAVELS OF A NATURALIST 



Some of the sledges carry barrels of reindeer meat, 

 which are supported upon two strong parallel spars, or 

 ' gauntreys.' Others have little house-like boxes — 

 Kussian-made — which fit exactly on the sledges, the ends 

 resting on the cross-bars of the sledges at the back and 

 front, and these cross-bars being placed lower down 

 than in the other sledges. These Noah's-ark-Hke boxes 

 have the lid in the centre of the side of the roof, and 

 they contain meat, bread, ropes, lassos, crosses, and 

 sundries. The still lighter baggage is simply bound on 

 the top of the lighter sledges. These articles consist of 

 reindeer skins, horns, malitzas and clothing, bundles of 

 sinews, grass matting, etc., and these are sometimes 

 covered over with sheets of birch-bark sewn together with 

 sinew, but often with reindeer skins. The chooms and 

 all their belongings are carried upon two other sledges. 



When the reindeer are away feeding, and they are often 

 several versts away from the site of the encampment, the 

 harness is left attached to or laid upon the sledges. 



The bone parts of the harness, all of which we suc- 

 ceeded in purchasing, are as follows, with description of 

 the rest : — 



Fig. 1. — Halter ])ieces, to which halter the single rein 

 is attached with a swivel (Fig. 2), and to which in the 

 other deer the connecting bridles are attached at one end, 

 the other ends of the bridles being fixed to the saddles on 

 the left sides of the three leading deer— supposing four 

 deer to be used. This plan of harnessing the head of the 

 second deer to the centre of the side of the first, gives the 

 latter the lead by about a foot or, say, a head, and the 

 fourth deer will thus be three feet, or three heads, behind 

 the first. The rein is then passed along the left side of 

 the leading deer and rests in a nicked piece of bone 

 attached to the side of the saddle, which we will name 

 the rein-rest (Figs. 3, 4, 5 and 6), which is often neatly 



