You See The Ice And Mire Are So
Prevalent, That Over This Tract, Which Lies For Those 13 Days' Journey In
A Great Valley Between Two Mountains, No Horses (As I Told You) Can
Travel, Nor Can Any Wheeled Carriage Either.
Wherefore they make sledges,
which are carriages without wheels, and made so that they can run over the
ice, and also over mire and mud without sinking too deep in it.
Of these
sledges indeed there are many in our own country, for 'tis just such that
are used in winter for carrying hay and straw when there have been heavy
rains and the country is deep in mire. On such a sledge then they lay a
bear-skin on which the courier sits, and the sledge is drawn by six of
those big dogs that I spoke of. The dogs have no driver, but go straight
for the next post-house, drawing the sledge famously over ice and mire.
The keeper of the post-house however also gets on a sledge drawn by dogs,
and guides the party by the best and shortest way. And when they arrive at
the next station they find a new relay of dogs and sledges ready to take
them on, whilst the old relay turns back; and thus they accomplish the
whole journey across that region, always drawn by dogs.[NOTE 3]
The people who dwell in the valleys and mountains adjoining that tract of
13 days' journey are great huntsmen, and catch great numbers of precious
little beasts which are sources of great profit to them.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 906 of 1350
Words from 243398 to 243662
of 370046
