146 HOW THE KOMATIK IS MADE. 



pair is recrossed at right angles by another gouge, the purpose of 

 which will soon be seen. A curious fact is that all these holes are 

 bored out with a red hot iron to make them smooth and even. On 

 the side bars, at a regular and previously measured distance apart, 

 are bored holes to the exact number of the crossbars. The holes 

 are bored, one a little above, and the next a little below the pre- 

 ceding one, so that when done the whole presents two unequal 

 rows as here shown, .•.•.•.*.•.*.•. hence the liability 

 of thus splitting the soft pine in the sewing process is lessened. 



The next work is sewing the parts together : for this a coarse 

 salmon net twine is threaded into a needle used for the pur- 

 pose, and each crossbar is sewed into the corresponding hole 

 in the side bar, in and out of the holes on either side of the bar 

 itself, and drawn as tight as possible ; the needle then slips under 

 the twine tlirough the groove across the inner pair of holes, and a 

 loop and a stout pull fasten it ; thus each bar is sewed on till all 

 are tight, — but we have not yet finished. The forward end of 

 each side bar must be strengthened by a long, thin iron placed 

 lengthwise along the inner side of each bar (this is the usual and 

 best way of strengthening the ends), and screwed tight to the 

 boards. Then come the shoes. 



Every komatik has shoes or runners as do our sleds, but unlike 

 them they are of whalebone. Whales are so often found dead 

 on different parts of the coast and towed to some harbor where the 

 flesh is cut up for the dogs, and the bones saved for various pur- 

 poses, that the large rib-bones have become a regular article of 

 commerce among the people ; the bones are some eight or ten 

 feet long and nearly or quite a foot wide, with perhaps two inches 

 of thickness. These bones are obtained, then strips the full 

 length and an inch and a half wide are sawed off, and being 

 trimmed they answer perfectly for runners. With a gimlet, holes 

 are bored through them about six inches apart, and they are fas- 

 tened to the bar, which is also bored into, to correspond, by small 

 pointed wooden pegs driven tightly down ; the knobs of the pegs 

 are then sawed off, and the sides of the runners, if they overlap, 



