MAKING A SLEDGE 



that sledge, and your water-men did not. That 

 makes a good deal of difference." 



" Just so," I thought ; " the Eskimos are like every- 

 body else : every man likes his own handiwork the 

 best!" 



In the dark of the evening Jerry and Julius came 

 home from the woods, helping the dogs to haul an 

 enormous tree stem. I was astonished that such a 

 big tree was to be found in Labrador ; but the men 

 only smiled. They had been a good many miles 

 that day, struggling through the soft snow of a 

 sheltered valley that they knew, where the trees are 

 shielded from the winds and have managed, in the 

 course of centuries, to reach a useful size. 



I think I am right in writing of " centuries " in 

 the life of those trees ; for the superintendent of the 

 mission, Bishop Martin of Nain, planted a seedling 

 fir to celebrate the birth of his first son ; and when I 

 saw the tree where it stands in a sheltered nook on 

 the hillside at Nain, it was knee high and that was 



n after the young man's twenty-first birthday ! 



Jerry and Julius got one advantage from using 

 Labrador wood for my sledge ; it needed no season- 

 ing. " Ay," they said, " there is no wood for sledges 

 like the Labrador wood ; and that is why the 

 jAvanemiut (northerners) send to Okak for their 

 sledge wood." 



Next morning I found them sawing the tree into 

 planks ; Jerry, being the more learned man, was 

 jplaying top-sawyer and guiding the saw, while 

 Julius stood underneath and knotted his great 

 muscles with the power of his pulling. They had a 

 ^workshop all ready close at hand ; it consisted of 



wo big blocks of frozen snow set about six feet 



115 



