Distribution of Weight.
Being on the subject of locomotion, we will examine a few of the contrivances by which a man is enabled to pass in safety over soft substances into which he would otherwise sink.
The first and best-known of these is the Snow-shoe of Northern America. It is a framework of wood, shaped as shown in the upper figure on the right-hand side, and strengthened by two cross-bars. The interior of the “shoe” is filled in with hide thongs arranged much like those of a racket, and stretched as tightly. The front of the snow-shoe is slightly turned up, so as to avoid the danger of the point sticking in the snow, an event which, however, generally happens to a novice.
These instruments are of considerable size, a specimen in my collection measuring exactly five feet in length, by fifteen inches in width.
Supported on the snow-shoe, the hunter is enabled to glide unhurt over the deep snow in which he must have sunk without some such aid. He can thus hunt the bison, the wapiti, or any of the larger animals, being able to pass rapidly over the surface, while they are laboriously ploughing their way through the snow-drifts.
It occasionally happens that the snow falls before the shoes are ready. In this case the hunter is obliged to extemporise snow-shoes by cutting them out of thin boards.
Several years ago, when snow fell heavily and remained unmelted for many days, some Canadians, who were visiting England, made quite a sensation by donning their snow-shoes, and travelling over the snow-clad country. It was very pretty to see the easy way in which they could shoot down a hill, and to watch the peculiar gait which is needed by the snow-shoe.
At the bottom of the illustration is shown a portion of a curious skate used in Norway, and called Skidor.
These remarkable implements achieve by means of length the task which the snow-shoe accomplishes by width. They are made of wood, and, though but a few inches in width, are ten feet or more in length. One is always a few feet shorter than the other, for the convenience of turning. Much practice is needed for the management of the Skidors, but, when they are fairly mastered, they enable their owner to travel at a wonderful pace.
The Norwegian hunter is quite as dependent on his Skidor as the North American on his Snow-shoe, and uses it for exactly the same purpose. A corps of these hunters has been organized for war, and very formidable they were, hanging on the skirts of the enemy, and giving him no rest, day or night. They never came within fifty yards of each other, so that even cannon were useless; and, as soon as they thought that they were endangered, they dispersed in all directions, only to reunite and swoop down again on the enemy at the first opportunity.
The central figure represents the Mud-patten, which, as its name implies, plays the same part towards mud that the snow-shoe and skidor do to the snow. Like them, also, it is not easy to manage; and a novice is tolerably certain to drive the front of the patten into the mud, and so get an awkward and not aromatic fall.
This patten, which is merely a square piece of board attached to the foot, is in use on many of our coasts where the ebbing tide runs out to a great distance, leaving a vast expanse of soft mud. Like the skidor and the snow-shoe, it is mostly used by sportsmen, especially in the winter, when wild-duck shooting sets in.
Aided by the pattens, a sportsman can travel for miles over mud that would otherwise swallow him up, shoot his birds, and secure them when fallen. While engaged in winter shooting on the Medway, we have often lost birds because they fell beyond a deep mud-bank, and we had no means of crossing it.
On the left hand of the illustration are some natural parallels of these artificial aids. The two upper figures represent two forms of webbed feet, and the analogy between them and the snow-shoe and mud-patten is too obvious to need explanation.
In the centre is the foot of the Jacana, an Asiatic bird. Its foot may well be taken as the analogue of the skidor, length taking the place of breadth, and enabling the weight to be distributed over a large surface.
This bird finds its food in rivers and lakes, and, by reason of its enormously long toes, can walk with safety over slight floating vegetation, which would give way at once under the tread of any bird except a Jacana. Very good representations of this bird are to be seen in Japanese works of art, especially those which are mounted as screens. Even the peculiar gait of the bird is given with marvellous truth.
The last figure represents the common Water-gnat (Gerris), which may be seen in almost any piece of fresh water, however small. Ponds that are open to the south, and sheltered from the north wind, are its favourite localities.
It is a carnivorous being, feeding almost wholly on insects that fall into the water. In order to capture them, it runs rapidly over the surface of the water, the long slender legs distributing its weight over a large surface, and so keeping it from sinking. Only the last two pairs of legs are employed for this purpose, the first pair being held in front of the body, and used for the purpose of capturing prey.