94 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[OHAr. 
corresponds completely with the Greenlander’s umia'k or woman’s 
boat. It is so light that four men can take it upon their 
shoulders, and yet so roomy that thirty men can he conveyed 
in it. One seldom sees anatkuat, or boats intended for only one 
man; they are much worse built and uglier than the Green¬ 
lander’s kayak. The large boats are rowed with broad-bladed 
oars, of which every man or woman manages only one. By 
means of these oars a sufficient number of rowers can for a little 
raise the speed of the boat to ten kilometres per hour. Like 
the Greenlanders, however, they often cease rowing in order to 
rest, laugh, and chatter, then row furiously for some minutes 
rest themselves again, row rapidly, and so on. When the sea is 
covered with thin newly formed ice they put two men in the 
fore of the boat with one leg over in order to trample the ice 
in pieces. 
During winter the boats are laid up, and instead the dog- 
sledges are put in order. These are of a different construction 
from the Greenland sledges, commonly very light and narrow, 
made of some flexible kind of wood, and shod with plates of 
whales’ jawbones, whales’ ribs, or whalebone. In order to im¬ 
prove the running, the runners before the start are carefully 
covered with a layer of ice from two or three millimetres in 
thickness by repeatedly pouring water over them.^ The dif¬ 
ferent parts of the sledge are not fastened together by nails, hut 
are bound together by strips of skin or strings of whalebone. 
On the low uncomfortable seat there commonly lies a piece of 
skin, generally of the Polar bear. The number of dogs that are 
harnessed to each sledge is variable. I have seen a Chukch 
riding behind two small lean dogs, who however appeared to 
draw their heavy load over even hard snow without any extra¬ 
ordinary exertion. At other sledges I have seen ten or twelve - 
1 If the runners are not shod with ice in this way the friction between 
them and the hard snow is very great during severe cold, and the draught 
accordingly exceedingly heavy. 
