Another difference is that the Eskimo sledge is simply two oak runners an inch or an inch and a quarter thick and seven inches wide, shaped at the front to give the easiest curve for passage over the ice, and shod with steel, while the Peary sledge has oak sides rounded, both in front and behind, with two-inch wide bent ash runners attached, the runners being shod with two-inch wide steel shoes.
The sides of both are solid, and they are lashed together with sealskin thongs.
The Peary sledge is the evolution of twenty-three years of experience in arctic work and is believed to be the strongest and easiest running sledge yet used for arctic traveling.

On a level surface this sledge will support ten or twelve hundred pounds.
The Eskimos have used their own type of sledge from time immemorial.
When they had no wood, before the advent of the white man, they made their sledges of bone--the shoulder-blades of the walrus, and the ribs of the whale, with deer antlers for up-standers.
For dog harnesses, I have adopted the Eskimo pattern, but have used different material.

The Eskimo harness is made of sealskin--two loops joined by a cross strip at the back of the neck and under the throat.
The dog's forelegs pass through the loops, and the ends are joined over the small of the back, where the trace is attached.

This harness is very simple and flexible, and it allows the dog to exert his whole strength.
The objection to sealskin as a harness material is a gastronomic one.
When the dogs are on short rations they eat their harnesses at night in camp.

To obviate this difficulty, I use for the harnesses a special webbing or belting, about two or two and a half inches in width, and replace the customary rawhide traces of the Eskimos by a braided linen sash cord.
The dogs are hitched to the sledge fanwise.