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the bow and arrow, about 1862 — 63, the dog-sledge, the har- 

 poon and the lance were their principal means of making a 

 livelihood, and they are still that. It has already been men- 

 tioned, how the first expeditions found these apparatus com- 

 posed of small pieces of bone and wood bound together. 



At the present day the lack of wood is not so great; but 

 we can still see sledges on which the runners do not consist 

 of a single piece of w^ood, but of several pieces bound together 

 with thongs. For example, Ajorsalik had a sledge, in which 

 the one runner had 7, the other 5 pieces of wood, which were 

 exactly fitted to each other and securely lashed together. Each 

 of these sledge runners was 2,5 m long and 17,5 cm high; 

 of this however 1,5 — 2,8 cm went to the shoes of the runners, 

 which in front were thinner than behind. The breadth of the 

 shoe is ca. 2 — 2,5 cm. In front the runners curve evenly up- 

 wards , and a little before the front end begin the cross-trees, 

 which in Ajorsalik's sledge numbered 12 in all. The two up- 

 rights behind rise 75 cm above the sledge and are connected 

 with one another by a cross-piece and a couple of intercrossing 

 straps. The breadth of the sledge from runner to runner was 

 only ca. 55 cm, whilst the cross-trees were 60 cm long and 

 thus extended a little beyond the runners. This long, narrow 

 form is characteristic for the Polar Eskimo's sledge and dis- 

 tinguishes it for example from the shorter and broader sledges 

 used in West Greenland. 



Instead of shoes of filed pieces of walrus and narwhal 

 teeth the Eskimos now also use iron-shoes. There are even a 

 few of the specially expert hunters who now keep two sledges, 

 one with ivory shoes and the other with iron shoes. The 

 former, namely, are said to be best on the wet ice in the au- 

 tumn and spring, whilst the iron shoes are best on the ice 

 during the rest of the winter and on land. The method of 

 giving the runners ice-shoes is also known, melting snow being 

 rubbed on them; it is chiefly used in the autumn. Early in 



