208 



THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT 



[ETH. ANN. 18 



sleds commonly have the runners unshod, although sometimes strips of 

 bone are used for that purpose. 



Figure 62 illustrates a sled from Plover bay, Siberia, which is the 

 style used on St Lawrence island and the adjacent Siberian coast. It 

 is modeled after those used by the Chukchi of eastern Siberia. The 

 runners are made from pieces of driftwood; they are suboval in cross 

 section, about li inches wide by 1^ thick, and taper toward the front. 

 To the front ends of the runners is lashed an overlapping piece of wood 

 of the same width and about half an inch thick, which extends down 

 the under side of the runner and is curved up over the back, reaching 

 midway to the rear of the sled, where it is lashed to the end of a flat 

 piece of wood which serves as the rail. Bowed pieces of reindeer 

 horn are fixed in the tops of the runners, to which they are fastened by 

 whalebone or rawhide lashings. Two flattened sticks extend from the 

 top of the first bow to a little beyond the last one, to form a resting 

 place for the bed of the sled and to which it is lashed. Crosspieces 

 are then lashed to these sticks. On each side a brace is formed by a 

 rod of wood, which is lashed against the side of the stringer and to the 



FIG. 62 Sled used on the Siberian shore of Bering strait. 



runner 15 inches in front of the rear end and extending obliquely for 

 ward under the bed. At the rear end a bow of wood is lashed to the 

 last deerhorn bow under the bottom, forming a curve about 10 inches 

 high above the bed; from each side of this, near the top, another bow 

 extends forward and downward to the base of the second deerhorn 

 bow, where it is firmly lashed. To serve as a shoe, a thin, flat piece of 

 wood is fastened to the lower side of each runner by rawhide lashings 

 passed through the runner and through holes in the shoe, which are 

 countersunk, so that the friction against the surface of the snow or 

 rocks shall not cut the cord. The load is fastened on these sleds with 

 . rawhide cords, and the attachment for hauling is made to the forward 

 part of the runners and the first crosspiece. 



This form of sled is used with dogs by the Eskimo and sedentary 

 Chukchi of the Asiatic coast, and with reindeer by the reindeer using 

 Chukchi of that region. 



Figure 1, plate LXXVI, represents another style of sled, from St 

 Lawrence island, used for transporting to the village the meat and blub 

 ber from the place where the game is killed. It is about 15 inches in 

 length and the same in width, and has two stout, walrus-tusk run 

 ners about 15 inches long, an inch and a half deep, and two thirds of an 



