Walking exercises a greater influence over the economy when it takes place on inclined planes than on a flat surface. In ascending, the effort is made in a direction directly opposed to the general tendency of heavy bodies: the body is strongly bent, the upper part of the trunk in advance; the action of the posterior and anterior muscles of the thigh is considerable; and circulation and respiration are speedily accelerated by the violence of the muscular contractions. In descending, on the contrary, effort is requisite to keep up the body, which tends to obey the laws of gravitation; and to moderate the tendency of gravity to project forward in the centre, the body is thrown back, the sacro-spinal mass, and the posterior muscles of the neck, are strongly contracted, the knees bent, and the steps much shorter. Men with long flat feet, and the heel bone little projecting, are bad walkers.
FEATS IN WALKING.
The power of walking great distances without fatigue is an important matter, in which the English have of late excelled. A good walker will do six miles an hour, for one hour, on a good road.[3] If in perfect training, he may even do twelve miles in two hours. Eighteen miles in three hours is a much more doubtful affair, though some are said to have achieved it.
[3] Seven miles in one hour are said to have been done by some.
A Cork paper, of recent date, describes a match of ten miles in 120 minutes, on the Mallow and Fermoy road, by Captain John T. G. Campbell, of the 91st (Argyleshire) Regiment, accoutred in heavy marching order of a private soldier, viz., with knapsack and kit, great-coat and mess-tin, musket, bayonet, and sixty rounds of ball cartridge: total, fifty pounds’ weight. Heavy bets were pending on the issue. The captain started at eight o’clock, A.M., and performed this undertaking in the short time of 107 minutes and a quarter, thus winning the match, and having twelve minutes and three quarters to spare.
At the rate of five miles an hour, pedestrians of the first class will do forty miles in eight hours, and perhaps fifty in ten.[4] At the rate of four miles an hour, a man may walk any length of time. Robert Skipper walked 1000 miles in 1000 successive half-hours, on the same ground Captain Barclay walked 1000 miles in 1000 successive hours.
[4] A clever writer in Blackwood’s Magazine says, “There can be no doubt that, out of the British army, on a war establishment, ten thousand men might be chosen, by trial, who would compose a corps capable of marching fifty miles a day, on actual service, for a whole week. The power of such a corps is not to be calculated: it would far outgo cavalry.”
In the art of walking quickly, the circumstance perhaps most important is, to keep the knees somewhat bent and springy.