foreleg through each of the side loops, bringing the main part of the thong over the back.”[245] This is the trace, and by means of a toggle it is fastened to a long line that runs back to the sledge and connects all the dogs with it. The Central Eskimo make two bights passing under the forelegs, joined by two straps across the neck and breast. The dogs are not driven in Alaska,[246] but they are in the Central and Eastern regions, and Boas asserts that silence must be maintained during the journey, for the dogs will stop, turn around, sit down, and listen to any conversation that is carried on. The dogs are wolf-like in appearance, but are not given to barking. Indeed, they seem to pay little attention to a stranger. A long whip is used for touching them up when on the sledge. Steering is done by the legs of the driver. In the late spring, when there are sharp ice needles, a sort of leather boot, with holes for the nails, is tied to the dogs’ feet to keep them from getting sore. In summer-time they have an easy life of it. The Alaska sledge has no back, but has a rail on each side. [Illustration: ESKIMO SLEDGES] [Illustration: CENTRAL ESKIMO DOG HARNESS] [Illustration: ENCLOSED CANADIAN TOBOGGAN OR TRAVELLING SLED From Porcupine River, Alaska. Length about 8 ft.; width, 14 in.; height of body, 18 in. ] “The sleds of the Chippewayan,” says Mason, “are formed of thin slips of board, turned up in front, and are highly polished.”[247] This is the toboggan, or Amerind sled without runners, developed and used in the region lying between that occupied by the Eskimo and about the northern limit of the United States. Dogs were attached to the toboggan by some tribes, as the Tinne, who also used the dogs in summer as pack animals. The toboggan, however, was usually pulled by men, and its object was the transportation of a load which would otherwise need to be carried. It was made of a single thin plank, or of two, fastened together on the upper surface with battens, and having the forward end turned up and over like a letter C and fixed in this position by rawhide cords attached properly to the first cross batten, and sometimes a rawhide line is also carried back to the last batten to give additional strength. The toboggan is now in common use among the whites of America, especially the Canadians.