437 



Only the isolated unpaired holes at one end of the piece, lying 

 in the median of it, are bored exactly vertically. No doubt, 

 the advantage of giving the nails an obliquely diverging posi- 

 tion is that they hold the keels better in place, and that the 

 friction of the snow or of the ground in travelling does not 

 tend so much to loosen them. Only in one of the holes is 

 there still sticking a tree-nail; its bottom has been cut in a 

 plane with the under surface of the keel; its protruding top 

 end has been broken off roughly. 



The under side of both these pieces of keels are very 

 smooth, without being much worn. The upper side, on the 

 other hand, is rough, or less carefully smoothed. Both have 

 been warped by the agency of cHmate, but could presumably 

 be straightened out with the aid of water or heat. 



All the previous Expeditions which have landed in North 

 East Greenland have found sledge keels. The first who set 

 his foot in the country, Scoresby^), tells us in his journal that 

 he found some in Traill Island (72° 12' lat. N.): "Our people 

 found the keels of sledges. These consisted of slices of bones 

 of whales, and of the horns of teeth of narwals. One piece 

 of the latter was nearly two feet in length; and another frag- 

 ment, not quite so long, measured 2^/2 inches in diameter. 

 These bones were all flat on one side, and convex or semi- 

 cylindrical on the other". He observes that the great number 

 of fragments betoken not only that the population must once 

 have been numerous, but also that they must have made an 

 extensive use of sledges. This impression of Scoresby's derives 

 further support from the German Expedition's find of a sledge 

 (see under heading itiv. Amd. 27), from Ryder's find in Sco- 

 resby Sund of 28 pieces of sledge keels made of the bones of 

 whales and narwhals, and the not much smaller number of 

 these latter which Nathorst and Hammar brought home with 



') Scoreeby 266. 



