;o THE CHILDREN OF THE COLD. 



made fast to the runner by thin thongs 

 of whalebone. The sledge is thrown on 

 its back, the slats being down, and the 

 native sledgeman prepares the runners 

 for the journey, by carefully icing them. 

 He has a small bucket or musk-ox ladle 

 full of water, and, picking up a piece of 

 snow about as big as his fist, he dips it in 

 the water to render it soft and slushy, 

 and then presses the slushy mass over 

 the bone shoe of the runner with the 

 open palm of the hand until it is com- 

 pletely covered around and along the 

 whole length of both runners. The 

 open hand is kept working backward and 

 forward over two or three feet of the 

 runner's length, smoothing and leveling ' 

 this opaque mass until it is frozen hard 

 (a process which generally takes only 

 about half a minute in cold weather! ; 



