CHAPTER XXII
ON THE ICE AND SNOW—THE ROYAL SPORT OF SKATING, WITH SOME HINTS ON SKIING, AND SNOWSHOES
Outdoor sports in winter are necessarily restricted to the thing that can be done in the snow or on the ice. But what glorious, health- giving, strength-making things they are! It is from the land of the stern winter that the world's greatest men have come.
Usually the frost comes before the snow, and with what joy the boys and the girls hear the news, brought by a rosy, eager comrade: "The ice is strong enough to bear."
Of course, our first experience on the ice was when we tried our first slide guided by the hand of a stronger and more expert companion. How soon we learned to do the trick, and what fun there was in "keep the pot a-boiling," while strings of youngsters took the slide. What if some did topple over? No bones were broken, and the incident always caused a lot of good-natured laughter.
Roller skating indoors or on smooth roads is certainly a good preparation for ice skating, but it is not at all necessary to begin that way, any more than it is to practice swimming with a support about the body.
It is said the children in Holland learn to skate as soon as they leave the cradle. Certainly the young South Sea Islanders learn to swim at an equally early age.
My advice is: Begin skating as soon as Santa Claus, or some other good fairy gives you skates of the right size. Some more advice: Never, from first to last, skate with your hands in your pockets. Leaves, sticks, bits of paper, or similar obstructions may check and stop, perhaps throw you, and at such times the hands should be free to ease the fall.
In the old days, with the help of the blacksmith, the harness maker, and the carpenter, boys had to put their own skates together. Those were certainly clumsy affairs, but there was no end of good sport in them.
To-day, the patent, clamp skate, fitting snug and securely and without any tight straps or tiresome screws, can be bought cheaply and fastened on in a jiffy. But can you use them when on? That is the question. If you can't, be assured you will soon learn, with patience, practice and the advice of a more experienced companion.
WRONG HELP
I note that some books on skating advise the beginner to take a chair to the ice and learn on this till confidence is gained. Now confidence is never gained by leaning on anything or depending on any person. Start in to win by having confidence in yourself. This applies to your life work as well as to skating.
When you have mastered your legs somewhat, and can move fairly well forward, it will be quite time for you to learn some other way of getting experience and fun from the sport.
Begin the variation by trying to cut a forward circle. To begin, you strike out on the left foot, with the body leaning toward the left, the center of the proposed circle. When the weight of the body is on the outside edge, the line described by the skate runner will be a curve directed outward. As soon as you find that you can continue on that stroke no longer bring the right foot quickly forward and down. This last must be a short stroke of only sufficient duration to give you time for another outer-edge stroke with your left foot. At first you will make a very large circle, but gradually you will be able to contract the dimensions. When you have mastered the left-foot circle, try it on the right foot, and practice until you are able to go either way with equal speed.
The backward circle, when learned, is easier than the forward ring, for the push stroke is made with the toe. When going backward great force can be given to the toe-push stroke by slightly lifting the heel.
To cut the circle backward, you must simply reverse your forward movement.
To skate backward, work or scull yourself along any way, until you are able to detect the proper movement and proper manner of giving the strokes. This accomplished, you may call yourself a good plain skater.
The spread eagle is one of the first steps in the advance from plain to fancy skating. Even when well done, it lacks the elements of grace, but it is most excellent practice to render the limbs supple, and make other more graceful tricks possible; and it is a favorite performance of boy skaters.
You must skate straightaway until you have gained sufficient headway, then at the end of the last stroke turn the toes out so that the runners of your skates make a straight line, heel to heel, one skate following the other. In this position you will glide over the ice until the momentum first gained is exhausted. At first the beginner will be only partially successful, but gradually he will be able to describe a wide circle forward, and in a little while gain sufficient control of his feet to slide across the skating pond in a straight line.
The spread eagle backward will be found more difficult, for it necessitates turning the toes out until they point backward. In performing this last feat, it is no easy matter to keep your balance, but perfection comes with practice, and soon the boy who devotes time to practice will excite the admiration of his comrades by the ease with which he turns either forward or backward. During his practice the beginner will undoubtedly bend his knees, but after he has reached that point of excellence where his whole mind need not be centered on his feet, he may learn gradually to straighten his legs until at last he can do the spread eagle forward and backward without looking like a straddle bug.
A ring can be made without lifting your skates from the ice. This is called a spread-eagle circle, and it is cut by spreading the feet. The skater must learn to keep his feet moving, first the right foot forward and the left foot back, then the left foot forward and right foot back, always with toes turned out spread-eagle fashion. When properly done, this motion will cause the skater to glide around in a circle, his feet moving in a most bewildering manner, while they weave a pretty grape-vine pattern on the ice.
It would take a volume properly to tell all the possibilities of skating, and the ice games, like shinny, and curling. But the boy who can manage the movements already indicated will be sure to learn by himself the more advanced art of this fine sport.
SNOW SHOES
are not so well known in the United States as in Canada and throughout the St. Lawrence valley.
Snow shoes are shaped very much like tennis rackets, and are made in much the same way and of much the same material. They are from thirty to thirty-six inches in length, and about one-third that in width. The broad point is to the front, and some eight inches back of this the foot is fastened by means of straps to the front and sides. The framework can be of light willow or strong rattan. The meshes should be closer than in a racket, and the best are made of water-proofed rawhide.
It requires much practice to become expert in the use of the snow shoe; but once the skill is acquired, twice the distance, over soft snow, can be made in the day, as compared with the average foot man on ordinary ground.
Without snow shoes, winter travel would be well nigh impossible over large areas of British North America. We are indebted to the Indians for this valuable aid to locomotion.
SKIING
pronounced in Norwegian "sheeting"—is the great winter sport of the Norwegians and Swedes. The sport is fast being introduced into this country and is gaining in popularity in every place where the two requisites—snow and a long, steep hill—can be had.
The ski is a strip of ash or spruce wood, turned up in front like a sled runner, and smooth and straight grained. The length varies from six to ten feet, the width from three to four inches, and the thickness from. a third to three-fourths of an inch.
The strap, attached by screws to the middle of the ski, is fastened over the toe part of the foot, leaving the heel free to rise and fall.
Skies are hard to manage going up hill, but on a level of soft snow a great pace can be kept up. But it is in going down hill, and leaping from a "jounce" that the skier is at his best. It is not unusual for experts to jump one hundred and twenty feet from rise to fall.