The entire equipment being placed upon the sledge, he threw over them a piece of bear-skin, which was doubled, so that, when opened, it would be large enough to wrap about his body and protect it from the snow, if he wished to lie down and rest. Then he drew forth a long line, fastened an end of it through a hole in the fore part of one of the runners, ran it across diagonally to the opposite runner, passed it through a hole there, and so continued, to and fro, from side to side, until he reached the other end of the sledge. There he made fast the line, and thus the cargo was secured against all risk of loss from an upset. Next he hung to one upstander a coil of heavy line, and to the other a lighter coil, tying them fast with a small string. The former was his harpoon-line for catching walrus; the latter, for catching seal. His harpoon staff was made from the tusk of the narwhal; measured five feet in length, and two inches in diameter at one end, tapering to a point at the other. All being ready, the team, consisting of seven dogs, was brought up. The harness was of a very primitive description. It consisted of two doubled strips of bear-skin, one of which was placed on either side of the animal’s body, the two being fastened together on the top of the neck and at the breast, so as to form a collar. Thence they passed inside of the dog’s fore legs and up along his flanks to the tail, where the four ends meeting together were attached to a trace eighteen feet in length. The trace was connected with the sledge by a line four feet long, of which one end was attached to each runner. And to the middle of the line a stout string was fastened, running-through bone rings at the ends of the traces, and secured by a slip-knot, easily untied--an arrangement designed with the view of ensuring safety in bear-hunting. The bear is hotly pursued until the sledge arrives within about fifty yards; the hunter then leans forward and slips the knot; the dogs, set loose from the sledge, quickly bring the brute to bay. If the knot gets fouled, serious accidents are not unlikely to occur. The hunter vainly endeavours to extricate it, and before he can draw his knife to cut it--supposing he is fortunate enough to have such an instrument--man, and dogs, and sledge are all among the bear’s legs, in a huddled and tangled heap, and at the mercy of the enraged monster.