MAKING A SLEDGE 



The runners were shod with strips of iron, a style 

 that has quite ousted the old plan of shoeing with 

 bone or mud. I have seen a few Eskimo sledges 

 with bone runners ; the people say that they serve 

 better in the soft snow of the springtime ; but mud 

 I have never seen, and probably my Okak neighbours 

 have forgotten how to use it. The Killinek people 

 still fancy it ; they mix clay and moss with water in 

 a pot, and plaster it on hot. It freezes instantly, and 

 must then be scrubbed to smoothness. It is cheap, 

 and that is the only advantage it has over iron ; it is 

 so brittle that every collision with a jagged rock 

 knocks a bit off, and for this reason the travelling 

 man from the Killinek neighbourhood carries a pot 

 for mud-boiling among the load on his sledge, and is 

 ready to halt at any time on the road and do a job 

 of plastering. 



Jerry and Julius screwed the irons on to the 

 runners, and sand-papered them till they shone; 

 and then, exactly four days after the fetching of 

 the tree, they dragged the sledge up to the door 

 of the hospital, and left it standing on the snow. 

 " We dare not take it indoors," they said, " because 

 it would warp." 



I admired that handsome new sledge of mine, 

 and thought to have a memento of it : I called to 

 the crowd of men who had followed it to the door, 

 ! and asked them, "Which of you can make me a little 

 toy sledge, the likeness of that one ? " They looked 

 at one another, and said "Atsuk" (I don't know); 

 i but a bustling little fellow asked again what the 

 ; question was, and then came forward saying "Uvanga, 

 'immakka" (I can, probably). I explained what I 

 wanted, and he nodded and lit his pipe to help him 



117 





