368 W. Thalbitzer 



Amareq's sledge had the following dimensions: length 153cm., 

 breadth 41 ст.; height of the runner 195 cm.; height of the uprights 

 445 cm. 



Umeerinneq's sledge: length 174cm., breadth 34cm.; height of 

 runner 16'5 cm. (in front), 185 cm. (behind); height of the upright 

 44'5 cm. (distance between the uprights above 465 cm., below 38cm). 



The Ammassalikers' sledge is smaller (shorter) than the West 

 Greenlanders' and the form is also much narrower and lower. 



The runners diverge not only vertically, but also horizontally, 

 that is, they are not quite parallel. On one sledge I measured, the 

 distance between the runners in front was 4Г2 cm., behind 48*4 cm. 

 On another sledge the same distances were respectively 32 6 and 

 392 cm. If the opposite condition prevailed, the sledge-runners in 

 the passage over soft snow^ would collect the snow as in a funnel, 

 to the detriment of the speed. As it is, the sledge acts rather like 

 a snow-plough to some extent. — On an earlier occasion I have 

 discussed the significance of the manner in which the bone keels 

 are nailed to the underside of the runners^). In the oblique position 

 of the holes to one another and the oblique direction through the 

 plane of the bone rails there is a definite intention, which exper- 

 ience must have taught these people. All tends to increase the 

 solidity and speed of the sledge. 



No tradition has been noted down from the Ammassalikers 

 regarding the sledges of earlier times. Johan Petersen received no 

 other information from them than that their sledges have always 

 had the same kind of broad uprights as now, and in "olden days" 

 have had still higher uprights and been broader (?). 



Hans Egede's pictures of the West Green'.anders' sledges from 

 the central and more northerly regions ("Perlustration eller Naturel- 

 Historie", Plates to pp. 46 and 50) show a type which in all 

 essentials agrees with the present in the same parts of the land. 

 The uprights consist of a whole piece of wood, commonly a bent 

 branch; the cross-bar is flat and straight and firmly attached to the 

 uprights. The cross-pieces in the seat are narrow and evenly cut 

 boards fixed at a small distance from each other. The points of 

 the runners were straight, whereas nowadays they usually bend 

 upwards. — The last of Egede's figures represents another type of 

 sledge without uprights, which seems to have been used in the seal- 

 hunting on the ice (ituartin). But, regarding whether this type was 

 common in earlier times we have no further information than that 

 given by this picture^). 



>) Thalbitzer (1909) pp. 4:^6 437 (cf. p. 496). 



'^) H. Egede (1741) p. 58 describes it as "lang Lav-skammel", a long low bench. 



