290 Knud Rasmussen. 



We therefore took with us everything which might enable us to 

 hve under approximately the same conditions as at home, always 

 provided that game were to be found, and any anxiety we might 

 have had in this respect was greatly allayed by the knowledge furn- 

 ished by the Danmarks Expedition, that we should, in the neighbour- 

 hood of Danmarks Havn at any rate, find abundance of such game 

 as we were accustomed to have in our own district. We took with 

 us therefore harpoons, spears, bladders, lines and implements of all 

 kinds, both those used in hunting on the ice and those for kayak work. 

 We did not take a kayak, however, on account of the difficulty of 

 transport; we could at any time improvise one with the aid of a 

 sledge. In addition, we had a number of strong seal-hide lines, 15—20 

 fathoms long; these were intended partly as extra traces in reserve, 

 and partly as lashings etc. in case of need. We had also skins of 

 bladder-nose seal, reindeer, musk ox and bear to lie on, as well as 

 the ordinary sleeping bags. 



And finally, we had with us a big and very strong reindeer horn, 

 from which Eskimo bows could be made; Uvdloriaq was a practised 

 archer, his experience dating back to the time when guns were yet 

 unknown to his tribe. 



All our dogs' food consisted of walrus hide ; an excellent food as 

 ballast, but involving large loads on account of its indigestibility. We 

 had about 1500 kg. of this, besides considerable quantities of clean 

 walrus meat and narwhal hide, intended as food for ourselves. All 

 this heavy and awkward impedimenta meant loads for the sledges of 

 some 5 — 600 kg. each according to the strength of the teams. We 

 had four sledges for the work, and 53 dogs, divided into teams of 

 15, 14, and two of 12. 



For sledging on the inland ice we used runners of walrus hide, 

 about the same breadth as ordinary ski, stretched beneath the sledge 

 and then shod, by means of snow and water, with a coating of ice. 

 This is an old Eskimo trick, and gives wonderfully easy running. The 

 ordinary runners of the sledges were of course iron shod as usual. 



These walrus hide runners contributed, as it turned out, in so 

 extraordinary a degree towards the progress made, that I will here 

 describe in detail the manner in which they are made. 



The walrus hide is cut into long stripes, of about the same breadth 

 as the long Lapland ski, which are considerably narrower than the 

 Norwegian pattern. If the available walrus hide happens to be of such 

 dimensions that the strips are too short for the length of the sledge, 

 they can easily be joined together by boring holes in the two ends 

 to be joined and then tying or sewing them together with thin lashing. 

 It is best to cut grooves in the hide, when the stitches of course 

 freeze firmly in. These hide ski should be somewhat narrower at the 

 back than at the front, in order to reduce the resistance offered to 



