519 



pieces 3"5 to 4'5 cm. Breadth of the uprights at the foot 7 cm, 

 at the top, at the broadest part of the grip, 2*2 cm (at the 

 bottom of the curvature l'8cm). 



The Royal Greenland Trading Department's collection from Ammassalik. 



Fig. 90. Sledge from King William Land. 



The front ends of the runners curve very slightly up; 

 behind they are cut obliquely downwards. The holes through 

 which the cross-pieces are lashed are square (2x2 cm). 

 Only the two holes for the raw-hide cross-shaft in the front 

 of the runners are circular. Most of the cross-pieces are of 

 bone (reindeer?). The foremost cross-piece is of wood, cut in 

 the same fashion as in the Greenland sledges. The lashing is 

 made everywhere with the aid of leather thongs. Only the 

 bone shoes under the runners are riveted with bone nails ^). 



Length of the sledge 3'8 m. Height of the runners 22 to 

 23 cm, thickness of the runners 5*5 to 6 cm. Distance be- 

 tween the runners (in front) 45 cm. They diverge downwards. 



The Ethnographical Museum at Christiania. The Gjoa collection 

 (Amundsen). 



Fig. 91. A little chest (for keeping tools, clothes etc.) 



from North East Greenland, found at Ostkap in Jackson Island 



by the second German North Pole Expedition 1870^). On the 



') The sledges which have been discovered farthest to the North on the 

 arctic Archipelago west of Greenland, are mentioned by Feilden in 

 Nares: Narrative of a voyage to the Polar Sea (pag. 188). They found, 

 near Cape Sabine on Ellesmere Island, 'remains of several ancient 

 Eskimo encampments, as well as an old sledge made of walrus bone, 

 with cross-bars of narwhal horn, completely lichen-covered and of such 

 antiquity that the bones were friable, and also fragments of a stone 

 lamp . . .'; furthermore (pag. 1П0): "Close to Cape Beechy, and about 

 six or seven miles from the 82 parallel of latitude, we came across the 

 most northern traces of man that have yet been found; these consisted 

 of the framework of a large wooden sledge, a stone lamp in good pre- 

 servation, and a very perfect snow-scraper made out of walrus tusk". 



2) Koldewey 649. "The removal of the stones led to the discovery of 

 several small boards with many fine holes at the edge; near them was 

 found a well-preserved human skull, as well as several human arm and 

 leg bones. Small leather straps (for keeping the lid closed), doing duty 

 for a lock, were still in existence." 



