354 



THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 



runner is fitted a heavy shoe of clear ice, as long as the nmner, and 

 fully 1 foot high by G inches thick. The sledge with these ice runners 

 is estimated to weigh, even when unloaded, upwards of 200 or 300 

 pounds, but it appears that the smoothness of running more than 

 counterbalances the extra weight. At any rate these shoes are almost 

 universally employed on the sleds which make the long journey from 

 the rivers in the spring with heavy loads of meat, fish, and skins. One 

 native, in 1883, shod his sledges with salt-water ice in this way before 

 starting for the hunting grounds. As these ice shoes are usually put 

 on at the rivers, I had no opportunity of seeing the process, though I 

 have seen the sledges thus shod after their return to the village. 

 Lieut. Bay, who saw the process, describes it as follows : 



&quot;From the ice on a pond that is free from fracture they cut the pieces the length 

 of a sled runner, 8 indies thick and 10 inches wide; into these they cut a groove 

 deep enough to receive the sled runner up to the beam; the sled is carefully fitted 

 into the groove, and secured by pouring in water, a little at a time and allowing it 

 to freeze. Great care is taken in this part of the operation, for should the workman 

 apply more than a few drops at a time, the slab of ice would be split and the work 

 all to do over again ; after the ice is firmly secured the sled is turned bottom up and 

 the ice-shoe is carefully rounded with a knife, and then smoothed by wetting the 

 naked hand and passing it over the surface until it becomes perfectly glazed.&quot; 



FIG, 350. Railed sledge, diagrammatic, (from photograph). 



In traveling they take great care of these runners, keeping them 

 smooth and polished, and mending all cracks by pouring in fresh water. 

 They are also careful to shade them from the noonday sun, which at 

 this season of the year is warm enough to loosen the shoes, for this 

 purpose hanging a cloth or skin over the sunny side of the sled. 2 



We were unfortunately not able to bring home specimens of either style 

 of large sled. The rail sled (kamotf) is usually about 8 or 9 feet long, and 

 2 to 3 feet wide, and the rail at the back not over 2 feet high. The 

 thick curved runners, about 5 or 6 inches wide (see diagram, Fig. 356, 



1 Rep. Point Barrow Exp., p. 27. 



&quot;Schwatka, in &quot;Nimrod in the North,&quot; (p. 159) describes a practice among the &quot; Netschillik,&quot; of 

 King AVilliam s Land, which appears very much like tins, though his description is somewhat obscure 

 in details. It is as follows: &quot;We found the runners shod with pure ice. Trenches the length of 

 the sledge are dttg in the ice, and into these the runners are lowered some two or three inches, yet 

 not touching the bottom of the trench by fully the same distance. Water is then poured in and al 

 lowed to freeze, and when the sledge is lifted out it is shod with shoes of perfectly pure jind trans 

 parent ice.&quot; Strangely enough, these curious ice shoes are not mentioned by Schwatka s companions, 

 Gilder and Klutschak, nor by Schwatka himself in his paper on the &quot;Netschillik &quot; in Science, al 

 though Klutschak describes and figures a sledge made wholly of iee among the Netsillinginiu^. 

 ( &quot; Ala Eskimo, etc.&quot; p. 76). Also referred to by Boas (&quot;Central Eskimo,&quot; p. 533). 



