338 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [Sept. 



in cold weather there can be nothing to excel the reindeer-fur 

 boot or finnesko, which is made in Norway. It behoves the 

 traveller to be most careful in the selection of these articles, as, 

 though many are made for wear, many also are made for a 

 tourist market and will prove quite unsuitable for his purpose. 

 Here, again, a lack of time had prevented a sufficient care 

 being taken in selecting the large supply which we purchased, 

 and though we had a good number of excellent articles, others 

 were weak and unsatisfactory. The difference is most marked 

 — a good pair of finneskoes will stand many weeks of hard 

 wear on snow, whereas a poor pair will be gone in a few days ; 

 the importance of selecting good pairs for a sledge journey is 

 therefore obvious. Luckily we soon became fairly good judges, 

 and so never actually ran out of foot-wear on our journeys, 

 though we came very close to it. 



The sole of the finnesko is made of the forehead skin or 

 the hard skin of the legs of the reindeer ; it is important that 

 it should have a twist in the natural growth of the hair, as this 

 gives a better foothold. The upper sides are made of softer 

 skin from the neck or legs ; all the joints are very carefully 

 sewn with gut, and the boot is worn with the fur outside. 



To examine a pair it is necessary to turn them inside out, 

 and this is not easy to do until they are made damp. With 

 experience it is then possible to see the quality of the sewing 

 and the probable lasting power of the sole. The Laps make a 

 nest of grass inside these boots and place their foot in this nest 

 without further covering. There is an advantage in this in the 

 fact that the grass can be taken out and the frozen perspiration 

 shaken clear, but the custom probably springs from the absence 

 of wool. This grass is called sennegrces. We had provided 

 ourselves with a good quantity ; but we wore two pairs of socks 

 inside the finneskoes, and only used the grass to pad out the 

 toes and sides. Finneskoes are provided with a draw-string at 

 the top, but we found that the best means of securing them 

 was with a long strip of lamp-wick, which was wound about 

 the ankle and covered the joint between the legging and the 

 boot. Instances of seriously cold feet in finneskoes were 



