3.-,(; Tin: I'OINT liAKKOW E.SKIMO. 



hv a low wuoil.Mi rail on carh side. Kacli niiiiicr is a sli.-c fidiii a single 

 lai-H- walrus tusk, with tli<' laitt at tiie, back of tin- sinl. 'I'Ih' sluts, 

 wliTrli arc iiicccs ol' a sliiii's paiicliiiji', arc hislied tu the upper cdnc of 

 the runners so as to project about one-half inch on encli side. The lails 

 dare sli-iiitly outward. The whole is fastened together by lashiu.i^s of 

 i-atliei- broad whalebone, passing throu-h a hole near the upper edge of 

 the runner, a notch in tlie end of the slat and a hole in the slat iusideof 

 tiie rail, riieie. are two la.sMugs at each end of eaeli broad slat and 

 one in the middle, at each end of the luirrow one. The last and the ones 

 at ea.h <'nd of the sled also secure the rail by passing through a hole 

 near its edi^c, in which are cut square notches to make room for the 

 ol her lashings. The trace is a strip of seal thong about 5 feet long and 

 one fourth inch wide, split at one end for about 1 foot into two parts. 

 The other end is slit in two for about 3 inches. This is probably a 

 broken loop, wiiirh servetl for fastening the trace to a (h)g's harness. 



I donotrei-olleet ever seeing so small a sled in actual use, though Lieut. 

 Ray .says he has lVe.|neiilly seen tlu'in drawn by one dog. The people 

 who came down Irom Xuwuk with a small load of things for trade 



s, times used a small unia about 3 feet long, with one dog, and the 



saiiLe was often used l>y the girls for bringing in firewood from the 

 beach. 



A ver>' pi'culiar sled was formerly used at Point Barrow, but we have 



1 leans of knowing how common it was. It was a .sort of toboggan, 



made by lashing togethi'r lengthwise slabs of whalebone, but is now 

 wholly obsolete, since whalebone has too high a market value to jier- 

 iiiil ot its being used Ibr any siieli purpose. We obtained one .speci- 

 men about 10 feet limg, but it was untbrtunately in such a dilapidated 

 condition that wc were unable to bring it home. I find no previous 

 mention of the use of such sleds by any Eskimo. It is not necessary 

 to suppose that this sled is modeled after the toboggan of the Hud.son 

 r>ay voyagers, of which these iieojde might have obtained knowledge 

 thnmgh the eastern natives, since the simple act of dragging home a 

 "slab" of whalebone wtmid nattrrally .suggest this contrivance. 



We did bring home one small .sled of this kind (No. 89S75 [772], Fig. 

 .3.-)9, from I'tkiavwin), which from its size was probably achild's toy, 

 though from its greasy conditicm it seems to Innc been used lor drag- 

 ging pieces of blubber. It is made of the tips of (i small "slabs" of 

 black whalelx.ne, .■aeh about L' inches wide at the broad end, and put 

 together side by side so as to loini a liiangle 11IJ inches long and 9^ 

 wide, the apex being the front of the sled, and the leftdiand edge of each 

 slab slightly oveilap]iiiig the edge of the preceding. They are fastened 

 togellier by three t raiis\crse bands, passing through loops in the iqiper 

 .surf ice of each slot, made by cutting two j.aralhd hingitudinal slits 

 about one half inch l<Mig and one-fourth inch apart ].art way through, 

 and raising np Ihe snrlace betwi.eii them. The hindmost band is a 

 strip of whalebone nearly one-half inch wide, passing through these 



