Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 7.djvu/491

Rh The sledges are made of American elm, and the runners are shod with steel. The cross-bars are lashed to the bearers with strips of hide, which are well soaked in hot water and put on while warm and wet, so that when cold they will shrink tightly into their places.

The drag-ropes should be of two-inch whale-line, or better still of hemp or manila rope, which is lighter, six fathoms in length, and these could also be used for tent-ropes. They should be middled and the bight toggled to the span on the fore-end of the sledge. The span should be of the same size and description of rope, fitted to go with an eye over the end of the horn at the after-end of the sledge, rove through one or more grummets on the cross-bars, through a hide-strop round the runner, and taken well down below the foremost horns, so as to keep it as near as possible to the best angle of traction, namely, 15°. The bight of the span should be about three feet in front of the sledge, having a toggle and eye in the middle for the purpose of connecting the drag-ropes. To keep the contents from falling down between the cross-bars, two fore-and-aft lines are clove-hitched round each and stretched taut along—over these is laced a width of stout canvas, on which rests the sledge trough or load, and is called the sledge-bottom. The sledge-trough, although not absolutely necessary, is extremely useful, as it enables the sledge to be loaded more speedily, and prevents small packages from tumbling out; it is also most useful in the event of much wet. It is simply a canvas body in which the stores are packed, and weighs, without being oiled, eight pounds.

The drag-belts are made of light loose girth, three inches wide, long enough to go over a man's shoulder, having a strong eyelet-hole worked in each end, into which is spliced a piece of one-inch rope, having a thimble on it. Round this thimble is spliced a small piece of rope, having at its other end a bung toggle, usually a circular piece of copper. This is attached to the drag-rope after the manner of a Blackwall hitch, the advantage being that the man can detach himself at any instant. Turk's-heads worked on the drag-ropes point out where the men are to attach themselves. The sledge-lashings consist of about twenty fathoms of one and one-quarter inch untarred rope, and are used for lashing the lading on the sledge.

Too much care cannot be taken in the stowage and lashing of the sledge. The greatest weight should be over the centre cross-bar, diminishing toward the end, so that the sledge will rise easily and gradually, and descend in the same manner, when traveling over rough or hummocky ice. A well-packed, that is, a well-trimmed, sledge is dragged with less exertion, and less jerking to the men's shoulders, when going over rough ice, than one that has been carelessly packed. The lashings should be passed so tight that, should the sledge be upset and roll over, its contents would remain intact. It will be found convenient to fit a light cross-bar across each end of the sledge, for the purpose of spreading a light netting, on which to stand the