C8 DOG-SLEIGHS. 



morning and putting; my head out of my bag, I found myself, as 

 I thought, deserted. The whole prairie for miles was perfectly 

 level ; the dogs, sleigh, and my companions were all gone, and 

 it was most curious, when the real state of the case occurred 

 to me and I had shouted several times, to see the snow open 

 in one spot and reveal a man's head, and in another a 

 dog's. On this occasion enough snow had fallen to cover 

 the sleigh arid everything on it, the latter being some fifteen 

 inches high. 



When speaking of a sleigh as used with dogs, of course one 

 does not mean such a one as is used in Canada for horses, even 

 on a small scale. A dog-sleigh is simply a board of birch-wood 

 fourteen inches wide and one inch thick, and about ten feet 

 long, having one end turned up and tied back. Along the sides 

 of this board are arranged loops of raw hide for lashing, and 

 the way it is packed is as follows : 



A large sheet of buffalo-leather is laid on the board so that 

 perhaps four feet of it projects all round. Your baggage is 

 then arranged along the sleigh, care being taken that it shall 

 not be quite as broad as the board. When the load is high 

 enough (and it must not exceed sixteen inches) you wrap the 

 spare leather over it, tuck in the ends, and lash with raw hide 

 rope, made of elk-skin. W T hen travelling with plenty of dogs, 

 you often have what is called a carriole with you, in which you 

 can sit and go to sleep while your driver manages the dogs. 

 The carriole is made of a board of the same size as the sleigh ; 

 but three feet from the hind end is placed a piece of board as 

 a back, two feet high, which is kept in its place by cords going 

 from end to end and passing over the top' of it, and the space 

 between the back board and the front of the sleigh is filled up 



