Sleighs

Sleighs, or SLEDGES, are travelling vehicles without wheels, which in some form are in use in all countries where snow lies for any considerable part of the year. Usually they are on runners—either one or two pairs—which are connected by a framework and support the body of the vehicle; but the well-known travelling-sledge (pulkha) of the Laplanders, built in the form of a canoe, with sharp bow and square stern, of light materials and covered with reindeer skin, has no runners. In the northern United States and in Canada, where sleighs are brought to great perfection, lightness, and beauty, they take the place of carriages in winter; and there too sleds of lighter build, and supporting a light platform or seat, are made for coasting—i.e. sliding down hills. Long sleds for this purpose, sometimes capable of carrying forty persons, have two pairs of runners with their framework, on which a platform rests (often like a ladder, covered with a cushion); the front pair of runners is turned on a pivot by a steersman with the aid of ropes and pulleys. In Canada toboggans are in popular use for coasting (here called tobogganing), and consist of a single length of wood (or two boards joined together), about $\backslash frac\{1\}\{4\}$ inch thick, curved backward in front, and the curved portion held back by leather thongs. The toboggan of course has no runners, may accommodate two to eight persons, and is guided by the steersman's foot dragging behind, toe downward. In Russia sleighs are often drawn by a team of three horses (troika).