370 W. Thalbitzer 



whereas at Ammassalik as at Diskobugt the cross-pieces are of the 

 same form and placed regularly. Even if they are not always of the 

 same breadth at Ammassalik, they yet fill up the whole seat of the 

 sledge, without openings between. — The cross-pieces (like the uprights) 

 are everywhere lashed to the runners with seal-thongs, not fastened 

 by nails. Only the former method could give the construction of 

 the sledge the requisite elasticity and solidity to carry it safe and 

 sound over the rough, uneven ways, hummocky ice or stony, frozen 

 river-beds. The lashings are very solid (through double rows of holes 

 in the cross-pieces and sides of the runners) and well protected in 

 counter-sinkings. 



That sledging, probably with the same kind of sledge as the 

 Ammassalikers', has been in use some distance to the south of the 

 Ammassalik-Sermilik district, at the time when the whole of the 

 east coast as far as Cape Farewell was inhabited, is stated by 

 G. Holm^). Seal-hunting with the sledge in winter is said to have 

 been carried on as far south as Kangerdlugsuatsiak Fjord at 60^2° 

 N. lat. (cf. p. 341). 



The small, elegant sledge of the Ammassalikers is drawn by 4 

 to 6 dogs and is able to carry two persons, but as a rule only one, 

 the hunter. It contains in itself all the minutest details, which 

 have made the Eskimo sledge an unsurpassed means of transport 

 over the frozen ways on the sea, the fjords and the intervening 

 stretches of land. Its construction in large and small is, at the 

 least, just as intelligently adapted to the difficulties met with as our 

 modern , four-wheeled carriages to our beaten and paved roads. 

 Wheeled vehicles would be extremely unpractical for the hunter's 

 life on the screw-ice fields over the sea, or on the wild whirlpools 

 of snow-masses on the cliff's of the land. The smooth runners of 

 the sledge glide over the uneven courses like a boat over the waves; 

 it bears up on thin ice and on thinly frozen snow, where wheels 

 would sink through. It is low, not easily overturned, even when 

 tossed like a boat from one side to the other on journeying between 

 ice-hummocks or through stony ravines. It is easily steered from 

 poise and counterpoise, by means of a firm hold on the top of the 

 uprights, the driver running behind the sledge when going up or 

 down a steep slope. In such cases he springs off and either pushes 

 behind, when going up, or hangs on to the uprights going down a 

 slope, placing the feet in under the sledge, so that the whole of his 

 weight is concentrated on the hindmost, sharp corners of the run- 



') G. Holm in "Meddelelser om Grønland" VI (2nd ed. 1894, p. (38). 



