make their way alongside on foot, as they prefer. The dogs’ lines are all gathered to a point (like the sticks of a fan) just in front of the runners, when they are tied and then divided into the two short traces which, fastened to right and left on the runners, draw the sled. A still more ancient form of sled was in use among the Eskimo before the advent of the whites, but the elders of the villages remember it well and describe it to-day. In those times wood was very scarce, tools very rude, and whales more abundant than at present. So strips of whalebone taken from the mouth (before this valuable material came into the markets of the world at all) were stitched together by whale or hide thongs, until a sled could be fashioned out of them, something like a huge, long, black shovel, very hard, durable and strong. Dogs harnessed to this contrivance made good speed with it, even with the driver squatting upon it. In one respect it was more serviceable than the modern form with runners, since unlike these it did not sink in snow or easily break through a rotten crust. It should be noted that a full-grown whale has about a ton of this black whalebone fringe hanging from his jaw, the longest part of it attaining six or seven feet when the mouth is open; so that a fair sized sled could easily be made out of such a great supply. The struggle for existence in the Arctic has taught the Eskimo to utilise in the most ingenious ways resources at their disposal so limited that the marvel is so self-sufficing, so healthy, hearty and happy a civilisation, of its kind, could ever have been evolved.