416 Thomas Thomsen 



to the other Greenland types, the more so because the fragments 

 found show certain variations as regards details. Certain main 

 points ma}, however, be emphazised, so that the subject ought not 

 to be entirely omitted. 



In the inhabited part of Greenland there occur three types or, 

 properly speaking, variations of the main type of the not built up 

 sledge common to the larger, eastern, portion of the Eskimo domain; 

 they differ as regards dimensions and certain structural features, 

 but all have uprights at the back. 



The West Greenland sledge, which is used south of Melville 

 Bay down to Holsteinsborg (about 74°— 66° N. lat.), is long and broad; 

 the three sledges of this kind preserved in the National Museum in 

 Copenhagen have a length of 2— 2' 10 metres with a breadth of 90 

 — 95 cm. The Polar-Greenland sledge in use among the northern- 

 most tribe of the west coast (about 76° — 79° N. lat.), is likewise 

 long, even longer than the one just mentioned (227 — 264 metres, 

 judging from the pieces measured by me), but at the same time 

 considerably narrower, 054 — 60 m. broad. Lastly, the Angmagsalik 

 sledge is both short and narrow; it measures 1'53 — 1"74 metres in 

 length and 34 — 50 cm. in breadth.^ On the other hand, the three 

 types do not differ as regards height; all three sledges are equally 

 high or, properly speaking, equally low; in the specimens measured 

 the height varies between 15 and 195 cm. 



Thus, as regards dimensions, the North-east Greenland sledge 

 is very nearly allied to that from West Greenland ; the dimensions 

 of the Berlin sledge, 208 x 93 metres, agree closely with those of 

 the West Greenland sledge; the Stockholm cross-bar has a corres- 

 ponding breadth (about 0*95), while the runner is shorter, 167 metres; 

 it is possible that it is broken at the rear end.^ 



I shall not dwell on the differences in the uprights of the 

 different types, as this part of the sledge has not yet been found in 

 North-east Greenland; the pieces which are now screwed on to 

 the Berlin sledge are not uprights;^ I should prefer to believe, that 

 they are oblique bars like those which, in the case of the Polar- 

 Greenland sledge, connect the runners with the cross-bar (see Thal- 

 BiTZER I, p. 513, Figs. 87— 88); as regards form and length, they are 



^ Cf. Thalbitzer II, pp. 366 et seq. 



^ Judging from the figure b\- Thalbitzer I, p. 511 this appears probable; I m3'self 

 have had no opportunity of seeing the specimen in question. 



^ W. Thalbitzer (I, p. 394, footnote) writes: "In any case there is reason for 

 supposing that the uprights, if they existed, were fastened to the inner side or 

 the upper surface of tiie runners, not to tiie outer side." The uprights, how- 

 ever, always rest upon the cross-bars above the runners and are lashed to the 

 latter. 



