ESKIMOS 147 
are bad substitutes for bone or ivory, as they offer much more 
friction in cold weather when the snow is fine and gritty. 
During the period of intense cold, lasting from December to 
April, the shoeing of the sled is of mud or lichens, frozen over 
the regular shoeing. The best material for this purpose is the 
dark brown peaty muck formed from the decay of mosses in 
swamps. Where this cannot be obtained, the white reindeer 
moss is mixed to a thick paste with water. This shoeing is 
attached to the runners in the following manner : when cotton 
rags are available, these are wetted and frozen to the bottom of 
the runner, so as to cover the shoeing and extend a couple of 
inches up both sides of the runner. The muck, which has been 
boiled to a thick paste, is then applied warm over the cloth, and 
is roughly shaped by hand, so as to have a thickness of about an 
inch, with a section resembling the bulb of a heavy steel rail. 
After being roughly shaped, the muck is allowed to freeze hard, 
when it is worked over with a wood plane, and the inequalities 
are reduced to a smooth surface. It is then covered with a thin 
film of ice, either by lightly running a rag wet with warm fresh 
water over the surface, or by squirting a small even stream from 
the mouth. Great care is taken to have the iceing uniform, and 
every portion of the muck covered. This coating of ice is 
renewed every morning, and a sled so shod slips over the in- 
tensely cold snow with much less friction than when shod in 
any other known manner. As the weather gets warmer this 
muck is removed, and the ivory, bone or iron shoeing used. 
The number of dogs in the team varies from eight to two or 
three, an average team being six. Each dog has a separate trace. 
the harness is formed of two loops of sealskins, which pass 
under the forelegs, and are sewn together on the breast and 
joined by a strip about four inches long over the shoulders, thus 
forming an opening for the head. The loops are brought to- 
gether in the middle of the back, and the trace is there attached 
to their united ends. The trace is made of a single length of 
