each circle being small, complete, and well-formed, before the foot is changed.
The Mercury figure is merely the outside and inside forward succeeding each other on the same leg alternately, by which a serpentine line is described, thus:
This is skated with the force and rapidity gained by a run. When the run is complete, and the skater on the outside edge, his person becomes quiescent, in the attitude of Mercury, having the right arm advanced and much raised, the face turned over the right shoulder, and the left foot off the ice, a short distance behind the other, turned out and pointed.
FIGURE OF THREE, OR INSIDE EDGE BACKWARDS.
This figure is formed by turning from the outside edge forward to the inside edge backward on the same foot. The head of the 3 is formed like the half circle, on the heel of the outside edge; but when the half circle is complete, the skater leans suddenly forward, and rests on the same toe inside, and a backward motion, making the tail of the 3, is the consequence. The figure described by the right leg should be nearly in the form of No. 1; and on the left leg should be reversed, and resemble No. 2.
At first, the skater should not throw himself quite so hard as hitherto on the outside forward, in order that he may be able the more easily to change to the inside back. He may also be for some time contented with much less than a semicircle before he turns. Having done this, and brought the left leg nearly up to the other, he must not pass it on in advance, as he would to complete a circle, but throw it gently off sidewise, at the same moment turning the face from the right to the left shoulder, and giving the whole person a slight inclination to the left side. These motions throw the skater upon the inside of his skate; but as the first impulse should still retain most of its force, he continues to move on the inside back, in a direction so little different, that his first impulse loses little by the change. ([Plate XIX.] fig. 1.)