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Notes on the Selection and Care of Polar Footwear
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 October 2009
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The choice of footwear is still one of the most outstanding problems which confront a traveller in the polar regions. Differences of opinion have arisen for various reasons, but perhaps the most common one is lack of experience of the available types. Personal views are influenced by the nature of the journeys already undertaken, the climatic conditions and the types of country experienced, whether the individual has had to repair his own footwear or has had native help, whether he has good circulation, the question of whether his feet are subject to excessive perspiration, and whether he has any tendency to flat-footedness, etc. It must also be remembered that a man who has used a particular kind of footwear in unsuitable conditions or without proper care tends to condemn that kind as being useless in all circumstances.
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References
page 235 note 1 Notes on crampons, skis, ski-bindings, snowshoes and on special tanning methods will appear in Part II.
page 238 note 1 This is worth taking on an expedition especially for this purpose.
page 239 note 1 Brunner, Richard. The Manufacture of Lubricants, Shoe Polishes and Leather Dressings, London, 1923, pp. 221–25.Google Scholar
page 242 note 1 “Mark VI” type made by Robert Lawrie, Ltd., London. These have a three-plyfixed insole made of leather, asbestos and wool.
page 244 note 1 We recommend Boot and Shoe Repairing for Amateurs by G. Norman (London: W. Foulsham & Co., no date).
page 246 note 1 The amount of ski-control required when travelling alongside a dog-drawn sledge is far less than in mountain work.
page 247 note 1 English “Balata” is a fabric made of layers of canvas impregnated with rubber. This description comes from a Norwegian correspondent.
page 250 note 1 Sing, kamik, plur. kangmit in W. Greenland and kamiker in E. Greenland. Commonly called “kamiks” in English.
page 250 note 2 Hudson's Bay Company type, made in Labrador with hem and draw-string added at top.
page 251 note 1 Nelson, E. W.. The Eskimo about Bering Strait. Eighteenth Annual Rept. Bureau American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, 1896–97, Part I, 1899, pp. 40–43.Google Scholar
page 252 note 1 Urine tanning is characteristic of Eskimo culture.
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page 254 note 1 Finnesko or finsko means simply “Lapp shoe” in Norwegian (Finne previously denoting both Lapps and Finns). The term has come into English polar literature through the Norwegian explorers.
page 255 note 1 Sing, komag. N. Lappish gāmá.
page 256 note 1 Elgstrom, Ossian. Karesuando-Lapparna. Etnografiska skisser från Köngämä och Lainiovuoma, 1916–1919. Stockholm, 1922, pp. 298–313. (A translation of the relevant sections is filed at the S.P.R.I.)Google Scholar
page 256 note 2 This mixture is also excellent for waterproofing leather gloves for use at sea.
page 257 note 1 The term pjäxa (Sing.) is now loosely applied to several different forms of boots in northern Scandinavia.
page 257 note 2 Schufeldt, R. W.. The Navajo Tanner. Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. Vol. II, 1888, pp. 50–06.Google Scholar
page 257 note 3 Turner, Lucien M.. Ethnology of the Ungava district, Hudson Bay Territory. Eleventh Annual Rept. Bureau of Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, 1889–1890, 1894, pp. 213–19, 292–98.Google Scholar
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page 257 note 5 Hawkes, E. W. (1910). Loc. cit.Google Scholar
page 258 note 1 Hatt, Gudmund. Moccasins and their relation to Arctic Footwear. Memoirs American Anthropological Association, Vol. III, No. 3, 1916, pp. 149–250Google Scholar, and Arktiske Skinddragler i Eurasien og Amerika (Copenhagen,. 1914).Google Scholar
page 260 note 1 Obtained through the Hudson's Bay Company. In Alaska this name is apparently used for reindeer-skin boots of a type quite different from that described here.
page 261 note 1 Sing, válenok. Sometimes called katantsy or kátanki.
page 262 note 1 See Hatt, Gudmund (1916). Loc. cit.Google Scholar
page 262 note 2 Some notes on tanning will be given in Part II. This native-made chamois leather retains its softness in spite of repeated wetting and drying.
page 263 note 1 Speaking of the summer footwear of the Reindeer Chukchee, for example, W. Bogoras (Material Culture of the Chukchee. (Jessup North Pacific Expedition.) Memoirs Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. Vol. xi, Part I, p. 248Google Scholar) says: “These shoes are worn with thick grass insoles, but without socks. They fit the foot closely, so that when walking ankle-deep in the numerous bogs and mountain brooks, very little water can remain in the shoe. The soles, moreover, are pierced with two rows of small holes made with a bodkin, to facilitate the outlet of the water.”
page 263 note 2 The Reindeer Tungus sometimes use wapiti-skin, instead of elk-skin, for the purposes mentioned in the following description.
page 263 note 3 In summer the Reindeer Tungus wear somewhat similar short boots with softtanned hairless elk-skin uppers, and soles of elk-skin with the hair left on and facing outwards.
page 265 note 1 “Sennegrass” (Swedish: skohö, North Lappish: gāmâ-suoi'dne) is actually not a grass, but a sedge (Carex vesicaria) which has a wide distribution across Arctic Eurasia.
page 266 note 1 A very suitable fabric is obtainable from the Hudson's Bay Company.