LULEAN LAPLAND. 99 



July 26. 



I shall here give a description of the 

 Achier or sledjj-e. This is a kind of travel- 

 ling machine invented by the Laplanders, 

 drawn along the ground like other sledges, 

 and made of birch wood. The back part 

 is upright, or nearly so, the lower part only 

 being somewhat sloping inwards, and its 

 form is roundish, the height a foot, the 

 breadth a foot and a half. The body of 

 the machine is like the hulk of a boat, with 

 an obtuse keel, and consists of five lon- 

 gitudinal boards on each side, lying one 

 over the edge of another ; that which forms 

 the keel being about an inch thick, and 

 lying flat like the others. Each board is not 

 externally plane, but convex, so that as the 

 carriao-e is drawn over the snow it leaves 

 several tracks or lines where it goes, the 

 board which forms the keel only being 

 quite flat. The boards, which are fixed at 

 one extremity in a circular manner to the 

 roundish board that makes the back, (or asi 



li 2 



