Ethnological Sketch of the Angmagsalik Eskimo. 45 



sled somewhat over 1 foot. A sledge of this kind is driven by 

 from three to eight dogs harnessed abreast. They are guided by 

 the whip (fig. 74), the long lash of which is strung at the inner 

 end with beautifully cut, large ivory beads. At the lower end of 

 the handle there is an ice pick of bone, and at the upper a hook of 

 bear's tooth. When a rest is made during the drive, the sledge is 

 turned round, and one of the front paws of the dogs is stuck in 

 under the harness, so that they can only move on three legs. The 

 dogs are treated in a cruel, not to say barbarous, fashion. They 

 told me that a dog which was given to biting was cured of it by 

 having first been half throttled with a seal thong, after which the 

 sharp ends of its teeth were hammered off with a stone. As a 

 rule, dogs are only eaten in times of famine, and in this case they 

 are killed by hanging. In summer, when the natives have no use 

 for the dogs, they are sent to a little desert island, where their 

 piercing howls can be heard at a very great distance. 



In spring sledging and boating are often combined, the boat 

 being placed on two sleds bound together (fig. 35). In this manner 

 the inhabitants of two tents travelled in the spring of 1885 as early 

 as May from Sermilik to Inigsalik. 



Kaiaks. — The people of Angmagsalik subsist by hunting, 

 especially seal hunting. In summer all hunting is done from kaiaks. 

 A kaiak is made of a frame of drift-wood, covered with sealskin, 

 and is just large enough to contain one man, and not too heavy 

 for one man to carry with ease. The kaiaks here are in general 

 longer and broader than those of the West Greenlanders, and 

 terminate behind in an upturned point (figs. 33, 86, 87, 90). Just as 

 in the case of the umiaks, there is a slight difference between their 

 way of building kaiaks and that of the West Greenlanders. The 

 chief parts of which the kaiak consists are grooved together. The 

 ribs are mortised into the rail, while they are joined with wooden 

 nails to the other streaks. Two large sealskins are generally re- 

 quired for the covering. The paddles are double-bladed, and as a 

 rule have a tire of bone or narwhal tusk at the sides, and have 

 heavy mountings of the same material at the outer extremities. 



The people of Angmagsalik are not as good kaiakers as the people 

 on the South-West coast of Greenland; at any rate, it occurred 

 several times that our kaiaker from the West coast went out 

 hunting, when the Angmagsalik people declared that the sea was 

 too rough, or the wind too high. I imagine that on the south part 

 of the West coast, there are more kaiakers, in proportion to the 

 numbers, than at Angmagsalik, who can recover themselves after 



