Who could have believed that even among the famous riders of Hungaria would be found one who could perform the following feat? While a noble stag of ten was being hotly chased by the Kàposzátsmegyerer hounds—a subscription pack—one Karl Pörös, a discharged hussar, managed to bring the terrified animal to a stand-still in some close cover through which it was forcing its way, and, by an almost superhuman effort of strength and agility, to vault upon its back. After several desperate but unsuccessful attempts to dislodge its rider from his seat, the stag, stimulated anew to flight by the cry of the fast-approaching hounds, resumed its course, but it soon broke down under the weight of its unaccustomed burden, and died from sheer exhaustion and terror. Pörös—at least so the story goes—was found by the huntsmen sitting on the unwounded carcass of the stag, which he had literally ridden to death and resolutely claimed as the just reward of an achievement, unprecedented in the annals of the chase.
[A NOVEL CHAIR-SLEIGH.]
Fig. 1.
Fig. 2
Here is a design of a chair-sleigh, which can easily be constructed, and which will enable some of the ladies who do not skate to have a very pleasant time on the ice. The runners (see Fig. 1) are thirty-nine inches long, and are shod with iron for their whole length. They are about thirteen inches apart, and are braced in three places, namely, at the back, at the front, and in the middle (directly under the front legs of the seat). The foot-boards are two inches wide by five-eighths of an inch thick. The seat is about fifteen inches square, and strengthened underneath before and behind. The legs of the seat are fifteen inches high, and are fastened to the runners and the seat by hinges, which allow the seat to fall forward over the foot-board, as shown in Fig. 2. In like manner the long arms, instead of being firmly fixed, work on a round iron rod, about a quarter of an inch in diameter, connecting the runners in front. The arms are fifty inches long, and are mortised into the back piece, which is twenty-five inches long by two inches and seven-eighths wide, thus leaving a few inches at each end for handles. The arms are connected by a cross-piece in such a position that when the seat is perpendicular, the cross-piece shall rest upon little brackets placed on the front legs. This cross-piece has a screw-hole in it, by which it is screwed to the front brace of the seat, thus firmly securing the whole.