CRUISE OF THE STEAMER CORWIIT, 85 



over twenty-five pounds, the natives handle them with snch skill that they are seldom injured, 

 and they will fearlessly venture into rapids filled with rocks where the slightest error of judgment 

 would result iu destruction to their boats. 



To keep these boats in good order it is necessary to have them perfectly water-tight. The 

 seams need constant attention, and this work falls upon the women. We had two canoes with 

 us on our expedition, and whenever we stopped at a fishing village some of the women would haul 

 the boats up on the beach and repair any breaks or stop any leaks which showed themselves by 

 holding a lighted firebrand and a piece of spruce gum together and by blowing vigorously melt the 

 gum sufficiently to apply it to the weak or damaged spot. 



During the winter season trausportation of heavy articles and the movement of families is 

 efiiected by means of dog-sleds. The sleds are from six to eight feet long by two to three feet wide. 

 They are made of wood securely lashed together with thongs made of deer or seal skin. Some 

 of the sleds are furnished with handles behind to steer by and rails along the sides, to which is 

 secured the load. The runners are sometimes shod with ivory or bone, but more frequently are 

 left bare and protected with a shoe of ice when in use. The ability to make an ice-shoe which will 

 be serviceable is one of the tests of a good Eskimo hunter. A team of dogs is usually composed 

 of five dogs, but three strong, well-broken animals will drag a heavy load at a very fair speed. 

 The proper management of a dog team is something which seems to be almost impossible for white 

 men to learn, and a native driver is as essential as the team itself if a journey is to be made by 

 dog sled. The dogs are trained to travel long distances without food and are never fed, except at 

 rare intervals, until the day's journey has been accomplished. The driver runs ahead of the dogs 

 and by cries of encouragement induces them to follow him. If the journey to be taken has been 

 performed before and the road is familiar to the dogs, they require no coaxing, but dash away at 

 full speed, anxious to have the work done and receive their reward in the shape of a meal of 

 dried fish. The harness used on the dogs is very simple. It consists of a few straps so arranged 

 as to bring the strain and weight of the load on the shoulders. The dogs are driven tandem. 

 Much depends on the condition of the road, the state of the weather, etc., iu forming an estimate of 

 the length of a day's journey, but under ordinary circumstances sixty miles a day is reckoned as 

 the average amount of work which a dog team can accomplish. But even this can not be kept 

 up for any great length of time. Their feet get tender and sore and they become peevish and 

 quarrelsome. At such times they are unreliable and almost uumanagable. The smooth surface of 

 the rivers after a light fall of snow has covered the ice is much used by sled parties, but where the 

 meandering course of the stream would lengthen their journey considerably the natives leave the 

 river and take to the rolling laud above the timber line. In traveling to and from their winter 

 hunting and trapping grounds the natives make use of well-known routes, and at several points 

 along the banks of the stream A-ta-ta-rok, our guide, pointed out to me a tall pole to which was 

 fastened the form of a bear or fish rudely carved, and informed me that those were guide-posts set 

 up by the natives to indicate the points where they must leave the river. Monuments composed 

 of stones were also observed on the tops of several low mountains near the river, having been 

 built by the natives for beacons during the time when the snow covers the ground and hides all 

 familiar features of the landscape from sight. 



The snow-shoes of the natives of this region are much longer and of finer workmanship than 

 any I have ever observed at other places in Alaska. They range from three to five and a half 

 feet in length by five to ten inches in width. The frame is made of one piece of spruce or larch 

 bent into shape when green. The forward end is rounded and the two ends of the piece of wood 

 forming the frame are brought together and lashed with a stout thong of deer-sinew. The front 

 is now turned up a distance equal to about half the width of the shoe. Two pieces of wood are 

 inserted transversely between the sides of the frame about three-quarters of the distance from the 

 rear to the forward end and securely lashed. Stout thougs of bear-skin or other strong material 

 are passed around these cross-pieces to make a foot-rest, and the spaces to the rear and in front 

 of the foot-rest are filled up with a very fine but strong netting made of twisted deer-sinew. The 

 method of securing this thread to the frame so as to prevent its being chafed through by contact 

 with the snow is very ingenious. The shoe is attached to the foot by broad toe-straps fastened to 

 the front cross-piece. 



