Explore "A Negro Explorer at the North Pole" by Matthew Henson on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
I have been busy making sledges, sledges of a different pattern from those used heretofore, and it is expected that they will answer better than the Eskimo type of openwork sledge, of the earlier expeditions. These sledges have been designed by Commander Peary and I have done the work.
The runners are longer, and are curved upwards at each end, so that they resemble the profile of a canoe, and are expected to rise over the inequalities of the ice much better than the old style. Lashed together with sealskin thongs, about twelve feet long, by two feet wide and seven inches high, the load can be spread along their entire length instead of being piled up, and a more even distribution of the weights is made. The Eskimos, used to their style of sledge, are of the opinion that the new style will prove too much for one man and an ordinary team to handle, but we have given both kinds a fair trial and it looks as if the new type has the old beaten by a good margin.