THE FIGURE OF EIGHT.
This is composed by merely finishing the great circles, of which the above segments form a part. To produce it, when the skater comes to the finish of the stroke on the right foot, he should throw the left quite across it, which will make him bear hard on the outside of the right skate, from which he must immediately strike. By completing the circle in this manner on each leg, the figure subjoined is performed.
THE FIGURE OF THREE.
This is performed principally on the inside edge backwards. The head of the 3 is formed of half a small circle on the heel of the outside edge; but when the circle is nearly completed, the skater leans suddenly forward, and rests on the same toe inside, and a backward motion is produced, which develops the tail of the 3. The right legged figure is that of the 3 in its natural position, and the figure made by the left leg is the same figure reversed; as per [example]. In these evolutions, the motion is not, strictly speaking, backwards, but rather sideways, as his face and body are always in the direction of his motions.
THE BACK ROLL.
By the “back roll,” as it is termed, the skater moves from one foot to the other alternately. His face is turned towards the left shoulder. The inside of the left skate bears on the ice, and the skater immediately strikes from it to the outside back of the other, by pressing it into the ice as forcibly as he can at the toe. The “back cross roll” is performed in a similar manner, the stroke being from the outside, instead of the inside of the skate.
