OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 



515 



in tight, and then cemented by throwing water to freeze upon it. The 

 lower part of the runner is shod with a plate of harder bone, coated with 

 fresh-water ice to make it run smoothly, and to avoid wear and tear, both 

 which purposes are thus completely answered. This coating is performed 

 with a mixture of snow and fresh- water about half an inch thick, rubbed over 

 it till it is quite smooth and hard upon the surface, and this is usually 

 done a few minutes before setting out on a journey. When the ice is only 

 in part worn off, it is renewed by taking some water into the mouth, and 

 spirting it over the former coating. We noticed a sledge which was extremely 

 curious, on account of one of the runners and a part of the other being con- 

 structed without the assistance of wood, iron, or bone of any kind. For 

 this purpose, a number of seal-skins being rolled up and disposed into the 

 requisite shape, an outer coat of the same kind was sewed tightly round 

 them ; this formed the upper half of the runner, the lower part of which 

 consisted entirely of moss moulded while wet into the proper form, and 

 being left to freeze, adhering firmly together and to the skins. The usual 

 shoeing of smooth ice beneath completed the runner, which for more than 

 six months out of twelve, in this climate, was nearly as hard as any wood ; and 

 for winter use, no way inferior to those constructed of more durable mate- 

 rials. The cross-pieces which form the bottom of the sledge are made of 

 bone, wood, or any thing they can muster. Over these is generally laid a 

 seal-skin as a flooring, and in the summer-time a pair of deer's horns are 

 attached to the sledge as a back, which in the winter are removed, to enable 

 them when stopping to turn the sledge up, so as to prevent the dogs running 

 away with it. The whole is secured by lashings of thong, giving it a degree 

 of strength combined with flexibility which perhaps no other mode of fasten- 

 ing could effect. 



The dogs of the Esquimaux, of which these people possessed above a 

 hundred, have been so often described that there may seem little left to 

 add respecting their external appearance, habits, and use. Our visits to 

 Igloolik having, however, made us acquainted with some not hitherto 

 described, I shall here offer a further account of these invaluable animals. 

 In the form of their bodies, their short pricked ears, thick furry coat, 

 and bushy tail, they so nearly resemble the wolf of these regions that, 

 when of a light or brindled colour, they may easily at a little distance be 

 mistaken for that animal. To an eye accustomed to both, however, a differ- 

 ence is perceptible in the wolf's always keeping his head down, and his tail 



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