| PLATE | | |
| The Eiger ( colour ) | Frontispiece |
| I. | Winter Sunlight | At end of Chap. I, between pp. 22 and 23 . |
| II. | By the Stream-side |
| III. | Hoar-frost |
| IV. | Jewels of the Frost |
| V. | Black Ice on the Sils Lake |
| VI. | The Budding Ice Flowers |
| VII. | The Full-blown Ice Flowers (twenty-four hours
later) |
| VIII. | Ice Flowers in Detail |
| IX. | Magnified Ice Flowers |
| X. | Winter Moonlight | |
| Skating, English Style ( colour ) | Facing p. 32 |
| Skating, Continental Style ( colour ) | Facing p. 34 |
| XI. | A Winter Harvest | At the end of Chap. II, between pp. 78 and 79 |
| XII. | Clearing the Snow From the Rink |
| XIII. | Sprinkling the Rink, Ch\u00e2teau d\u2019Oex |
| XIV. | Public Rink, Davos |
| XV. | Skating-Rink at M\u00fcrren |
| XVI. | Skating-rink at Ch\u00e2teau d\u2019Oex |
| \u201c She Lies \u201d ( colour ) | Facing p. 98 |
| XVII. | Curling | At end of Chap. III, between pp. 114 and 115 |
| XVIII. | Curling at M\u00fcrren |
| XIX. | The Three Kulm Rinks |
| XX. | Ladies\u2019 Curling Match, St. Moritz |
| \u201c Achtung! \u201d ( colour ) | Facing p. 116 |
| On the Cresta Run ( colour ) | Facing p. 122 |
| Tailing ( colour ) | Facing p. 126 |
| XXI. | The Building of the Cresta\u2014\u201cBattledore\u201d | At end of Chap. IV, between pp. 128 and 129 |
| XXII. | The Top of the Cresta, St. Moritz |
| XXIII. | Starting on the Cresta |
| XXIV. | Church Leap, Cresta Run |
| XXV. | Church Leap, Cresta Run |
| XXVI. | \u201cBattledore\u201d Corner, Cresta |
| XXVII. | Crossing the Road, Cresta |
| XXVIII. | Near the Finish on the Cresta |
| XXIX. | Bob-run, St. Moritz: In the Larch Woods |
| XXX. | Rounding Sunny Corner, St. Moritz Bob-run |
| XXXI. | Bob-run, St. Moritz |
| XXXII. | The Straight from the Bridge, St. Moritz
Bob-run. |
| XXXIII. | St. Moritz Bob-run |
| Ice Hockey ( colour ) | Facing p. 122 |
| The Telemark Turn ( colour ) | Facing p. 156 |
| The Jump ( colour ) | Facing p. 164 |
| Ski-joring ( colour ) | Facing p. 166 |
| XXXIV. | At St. Moritz | At end of Chap. VI, between pp. 166 and 167 |
| XXXV. | Practice Slopes, Montana, Switzerland |
| XXXVI. | A Slight Mishap |
| XXXVII. | Ski-jumping |
| XXXVIII. | Ski-jumping, Montana, Switzerland |
| XXXIX. | Veterans of the St. Moritz Ski Club |
| XL. | A Practice Ground | At end of Chap. VII, between pp. 190 and 191 |
| XLI. | Crossing the Road on the Cresta |
| XLII. | Top of Klosters Run, Davos |
| XLIII. | The Start, Schatz Alp Run, Davos |
| XLIV. | Bobbing on the Schatz Alp Run, Davos |
| XLV. | Skating-rink at Villars |
| XLVI. | At La Bretaye, Villars |
| XLVII. | \u201cBlow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind\u201d |
| The Ice Carnival ( colour ) | Facing p. 194 |
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+ "text": "WINTER SPORTS IN SWITZERLAND",
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+ "text": "CHAPTER\nI",
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+ "text": "THE SUN-SEEKER",
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+ "text": "There is an amazingly silly proverb which\nquite mistakenly tells us that \u201cseeing is believing.\u201d The most ordinary\nconjurer at a village entertainment will prove the falsity of this\nsaying. For who has not seen one of these plausible mountebanks put a\nwatch into a top-hat, and, after clearly smashing it into a thousand\npieces with a pestle, stir up the disintegrated fragments with a spoon\nand produce an omelette? Or who is so unacquainted with the affairs of\nthe village schoolroom at Christmas as not to have seen a solid\nbilliard-ball or a lively canary squeezed out of the side of a friend\u2019s\nhead? Such phenomena are by no means rare, and occur periodically all\nover England. The observer\u2019s eyes have told him that he has seen such\nthings, and the verb \u201cto see\u201d is merely a compendious expression to\nindicate that on the evidence of your eyes such or such a phenomenon has\nactually occurred. But no one believes that the disintegrated watch has\nbecome an omelette though ocular evidence\u2014seeing\u2014insists that it has. It\nwas a conjuring trick. And this leads me to the consideration of the\nphenomena on which this whole book is based.",
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+ "text": "For High Alpine resorts in winter are a conjuring trick of a\nglorious and luminous kind. Our commonsense, based on experience, tells\nus that ice is cold, but is melted by heat; and that snow is wet; and\nthat unless you put on a greatcoat when the thermometer registers frost,\nyou will feel chilly; and that if you frequently fall down in the snow\nyou will be wet through, and if you do not change your clothes when you\nreturn home you will catch a cold. All these things are quite obvious,\nand he who does not grant them as premises to whatever conclusion we may\nhappen to base on them, is clearly not to be argued with, but soothed\nand comforted like a child or taken care of like a lunatic. But High\nAlpine winter resorts give, apparently, ocular disproof of all these\nobvious statements, and those who go out to these delectable altitudes\nin favourable seasons see (which is ocular evidence) every day and all\nday the exact opposite of these primitively simple prepositions\nregularly and continually taking place. They sit in the sun, when they\nare tired of skating, and see that though a torrid luminary beats down\non the frozen surface, burning and browning the faces of their friends,\nthe ice remains perfectly dry and unmelted; they trudge through snow,\nand find that they are not wet; they see the thermometer marking\nanything up or down to thirty degrees of frost, and go out coatless and\nvery likely hatless, and are conscious only of an agreeable and bracing\nwarmth; they go ski-ing and all day are smothered in snow, and yet\nreturn dry and warm and comfortable to their hotels, and do not catch\nany cold whatever. Shakespeare once made an allusion of some kind (I\ncannot look all through his plays to find it) about hot ice, meaning to\nemploy a nonsensical expression. But it is the most striking testimonial\nto the magnificence\nof his brain that all he ever wrote meant something, although, as in\nthis instance, he designed it not to. For without doubt he was alluding\nto what appears to occur at St. Moritz or M\u00fcrren.",
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+ "text": "But it is all a conjuring trick, or so these altitudinists are\ndisposed to think when they return home to the dispiriting chills of a\nnormal February in England, and find that when the thermometer marks 45\u00b0\nor thereabouts they shiver disconsolately in the clemming cold. Even\nwhen they were out in Switzerland they hardly believed what appeared to\nbe happening, for they found that if the weather changed, and instead of\nthe windless calm, or a light north-wind, the F\u00f6hn-wind blew from the\nsouth-west, warm and enervating, then, in proportion as the thermometer\nmounted, they felt increasingly cold. All these things, though they\nthought they saw and felt them, were of the nature of a conjuring trick,\nand they never, after their return to the lowlands, really believed\nthem. It was obviously impossible that they could have felt warm and\ndry, after being rolled in the snow. It must have been an illusion,\ncapable of immediate disproof if they now went out without a coat, or\nsat down on a snowy London pavement. A pleasant illusion, no doubt, but\nclearly an illusion. It was like the omelette emerging from the top-hat,\ninto which a watch had, only a moment before, been placed and\npestled.",
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+ "text": "And if those who think they have experienced these phenomena, which\nso clearly contradict the most elementary laws of Nature, cannot fully\nbelieve in them when they re-enter the chilly spring of England, still\nless do those who have not experienced them find it possible even to\nsimulate credulity when the foolish Alpinist\nrecounts them. I rather fancy that people who have never been to the\nhigh altitudes in winter, believe that all those who say they have done\nso, and come back and tell their friends that sun does not melt ice, and\nthat snow is dry, and that ten degrees of frost is an agreeable\ntemperature to stroll about in without a coat, are in some sort of\ninexplicable conspiracy. But the conspiracy is so widely spread now, and\nis still spreading so fast, that one\u2019s remarks on the subject are\nreceived with politeness nowadays, though still with incredulity. Some\nstrange wandering of the wits has taken possession of the conspirators,\nwho are otherwise harmless. And, such is the force with which their\nillusion holds them, and so anxious are they that credence should be\ngiven to it, that they employ some sort of skin-dye to add completeness\nto their strange tales, and appear with brown hands and faces when they\ncome back to the an\u00e6mic metropolis. They are clearly the victims of some\nobscure but infectious derangement of the brain, of which the chief\nsymptoms are those strange illusions and an immense appetite.... And, as\nI have said, the victims of these illusions, before they have spent many\ndays in England, are already themselves wondering whether all these\nthings really were so, or whether they were but the fabric of a pleasing\ndream. But they make plans to dream again about the middle of the\nensuing autumn, and for the most part find that the vision is\nrecapturable. It is all great nonsense; but if you take a suitable\nticket at a suitable time of the year, and go where that ticket will\nallow you, the nonsense is found to be recurrent.",
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+ "text": "I do not know whether ice and snow, and all the forms of the \u201cradiant\nfrost,\u201d as Shelley calls it, are in themselves more\nbeautiful than the spectacle, to which we are accustomed, of an unfrozen\nworld, or whether it is merely because we are unused to the gleams and\nsparkle of these whitenesses, that we find them so entrancingly lovely.\nIt would be interesting, for instance, to ascertain whether an Esquimo\nor other dweller in the Arctics accustomed to ice, would go into\necstasies of admiration at the sight\u2014shall we say\u2014of Hyde Park Corner on\na moist warm day of September, when the roadway is swimming in a thick\nbrown soup of mud, and gusts of tepid rain stream on the wind-swept\nlamp-posts, thus supporting the idea that it is to the novelty of the\nspectacle that the arousing of our appreciation is due. Certainly it\nwould be hard to say that anything in the world is more beautiful than a\nbeech-tree in spring, or a crimson rambler in full flower, or glimpses\nof the Mediterranean in a frame of grey-green olive-trees; and I am\ninclined to believe that it is partly the contrast which a sunny morning\nin winter among the High Alps presents to all that a Londoner has known\nor dreamed of hitherto that partly accounts for the ineffable\nimpressions it never fails in producing on him. And to that we must add\nthe exhilarating and invigorating effect of the still dry air, and the\nsun that all day pours Pactolus over the gleaming fields. In such an air\nand in such a flood of light all our senses and perceptions are\nquickened, the vitality of our organs is increased, and with the\nwonderful feeling of bien-\u00eatre which the conditions give, our\nappreciation is kindled too. I always feel that it must have\nbeen on a frosty morning that David said: \u201cI opened my mouth and drew in\nmy breath.\u201d And perhaps on that day the cedars of Lebanon were covered\nwith the crystals of hoar-frost, and below the snowy\nuplands the dim blue of the sea slept insapphirined at the bases of the\nshining cliffs....",
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+ "text": "I lick the chops of memory, and go back in thought to the middle of\nDecember, when, having previously determined not to go abroad till\nJanuary, I hurriedly fly the country, like a criminal seeking to escape\nfrom the justice that is hot on the heels of a murderer. In such wise do\nI fly from my conscience\u2014conscience, I may remark, is one of the things\nthat everybody leaves behind when he goes to the High Alps: apparently\nit and other poisonous organisms, such as the bacillus of tuberculosis\ncannot exist in those altitudes\u2014while below my breath I again register\nthe frequently broken vow that I will be at home again by the middle of\nJanuary at the latest. For indeed it seems impossible to tolerate London\nany longer just now: the fogs have begun (these are the excuses with\nwhich I seek to stay the protests of conscience, before I fly from it),\nand for three days last week we lived in a thick and ominous twilight of\ndusky orange, tasting evilly of soot and sulphurous products. At\nintervals a copper-coloured plate showed itself above the house roofs:\nand, oh, to think that this mean metallic circle was indeed none other\nthan the hot radiant giant that in the happier climes was rejoicing to\nrun his course across the turquoise expanse of cloudless sky; that this\nremote and meaningless object was the same that sparkled on dazzling\npeak and precipice and turned the untrodden snows to sheets of diamond\ndust. Then after three days of Stygian gloom the fog was dispersed by a\nshrewd and shrill north wind, and for a whole morning snow fell heavily,\nwhich, as it touched the pavements and roadways of town more than\nusually befouled by the fog, turned into a\nbase and degrading substance resembling melting coffee-ice. The streets\nswam in the icy treacle of it, and motor-buses and other ponderous\nvehicles cast undesired helpings of it at the legs of foot-passengers.\nAfter this dispiriting day the weather changed again and a tepid\nsouth-westerly gale squealed through the streets. This was too much: I\nbought a quantity of what is known as sermon-paper and two new\nstylographs (this was another sop to conscience, and implied the\nintention of working out in Switzerland), made a few hasty and craven\narrangements on the telephone, and slid out of Charing Cross Station at\n2.20 P.M. precisely next day, leaving\nconscience, like an abandoned wife, sobbing on the platform.",
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+ "text": "Now, while journeys, whether on land or sea, are apt to be but\ntiresome businesses when they are undertaken at the call of some tedious\nerrand, they are vastly different affairs when they conduct the\ntraveller to joyful places and delectable pursuits. They are coloured by\nthat which awaits him at the end of them (like the sweetness of sugar\npermeating tea), and this particular progress is to me full of romantic\nhappenings. Dusk is already closing in before I reach the coast, and as\nthe train halts on the hill above Folkestone, before being towed\nbackwards down to the harbour, I can see the lights beginning to twinkle\nin the town and along the pier, which is surrounded by the great grey\nimmensity of the wave-flecked sea. A fine rain is falling dismally, and\nas I hurry across the slippery quay I am weighed down by an enormous\ngreatcoat (the pockets of which, I am sorry to say, are \u201csalted\u201d by\nvarious packets of cigarettes, which is why I wear it), and I stagger\nunder the weight of a suit-case, sooner than part with which\nI would die. For the French or Swiss railway companies often (no doubt\nwith humorous intent) arrange that the traveller\u2019s large luggage shall\nnot arrive for twenty-four hours or so after he has got to his\ndestination, and in less experienced years I have packed my boots and\nskates in these detained trunks, and have been obliged to wait in savage\ninaction till the railway company has come to the end of its joke, just\nas one waits for the end of a long funny story. Not so now: my\ninseparable bag contains my large and cumbrous skate-shod boots as a\nfirst charge, and after they have been stowed, the mere necessities of\nlife, like clothes and dressing-case, as opposed to its joys, fill the\nrest. Even in the harbour the steamer sways with the back-wash of the\nheavy seas outside, and the mooring-ropes squeak and strain to its\nunease. I stick in the narrow gang-plank that conducts in precipitous\nincline to the deck (at least the corner of my suit-case does, which is\npart of my identity); a faint and awful smell of red plush sofas and\ncold beef comes up from the stairs leading to the saloon; the\ntarpaulins, rigged up along the open passage between decks, flap\nuneasily and are buffeted by the rain-soaked wind, and sailors hurry\nabout with white japanned tin objects in their hands....",
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+ "text": "All this sounds dismal and dispiriting enough, but such incidents, I\nrepeat, take their colour from that to which they lead the traveller,\nand when bound for Switzerland they are all haloed in a vague\npleasurable sense of excitement and romance. We put out on the turbulent\nand windy sea, and as we round the end of the pier the whole boat\nshivers as a great white-headed wave strikes her. It is cold and wet on\ndeck, but I have to linger there while the cliffs of my beloved native\nland vanish into the grey of the\nswift on-coming night, and feel a perfect glow of enthusiasm at the idea\nof not setting eyes on them again for another month or so (probably\n\u201cso\u201d: because conscience is now far away, perhaps still waiting at\nCharing Cross Station, in case I return by the next train), and already\nI am beginning to be doubtful whether I really made a vow to be back by\nthe middle of January. I pass rows of silent figures with closed eyes\nreclining on deck-chairs in the more sheltered corners: then the whole\nship makes a scooping curtsey into the trough of a wave, and the water\npours sonorously on to the deck. Shrill whistles the wind in the\nrigging, and a raucous steam-siren proclaims to all the traffic in the\nChannel that we are off to Switzerland to skate, having left our\nconsciences and the white cliffs of England behind us, and not caring\ntwo straws, at this delightful moment, as to whether we ever see any of\nthem again.",
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+ "text": "I love the landing on the friendly shores of France, the waiting\nwhile the ship is reluctantly coaxed sidling up to the pier, the hustle\nto get through the custom-house and enter the warm, well-lit train. The\nforeign tongue is delightful to the ear: so, too, to the eye, the\nblue-bloused porters, and the unplatformed station, where the huge\ncarriages tower high above one, emitting mysterious jets of steam. All\nis strange and new and delightful: the engine of unaccustomed build and\noutlandish voice, the grey upholstered compartments with their\nhot-carpeted floors, the restaurant car with bottle-filled racks, where\npresently I sit, part of a moving pageant of eating and drinking, as we\nshriek through stations and scour with ever-increasing velocity through\nthe darkness of a stormy night. At Laon mysterious jugglings take place:\nanother\nstring of carriages is slowly shunted on to our train, to the\naccompaniment of many cries of warning and encouragement and wavings of\nlanterns, and the buffers come home with a soft thud. We cast off our\ntail, lizard-like, which is hauled away to travel divergently to Basle,\nand soon we are thundering on again by the more direct route to Berne.\nAt some timeless hour a long halt is made, and compartment doors are\nflung open with the sonorous proclamation of the arrival of les\nmessieurs de la douane. Enter les messieurs, and at their\nsesame bags fly open, and with strange staves they explore the hidden\nrecesses under the seats, in their nightly search for laces and spirits\nand cigarettes and all the contraband of peace. Soon this complimentary\nvisit is over, the green shades are adjusted again over the lamps, and\nthe vibration and rhythm of the racing wheels mingle and blend\nthemselves into the blurred edges of dream....",
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+ "text": "I do not wake until we are actually slowing down to enter Berne\u2014that\ncity so justly famous for its bears, its President of this delectable\nrepublic, and its terrace from which the eager tourist vainly scans the\nimpenetrable clouds which invariably screen from his view all possible\nglimpses of the mountains of the Oberland. Whenever I arrive at Berne it\nis always a grey chilly morning, just above freezing point, so that the\nicy streets are half slush. At first this used to depress me with\nominous forebodings of a thaw at the higher altitudes: now I know that\nall the winter through it is always just thawing at Berne, and that the\nsky there always is heavily be-clouded. I think a sunny frosty morning\nthere would cause me some considerable anxiety, for it would imply a\ncomplete upset of climatic conditions, and midsummer might\nbe expected to hold its abhorred sway on the heights. So in perfect\nequanimity I climb back again into our train\u2014heated to the temperature\nof the second hottest room in a Turkish bath\u2014and we jog in more\nleisurely fashion through the half-frozen villages towards the lake of\nThun. These villages are mainly composed of houses taken from the\nlarger-sized boxes of toys, with stones fastened down on their\nwood-shingle eaves to prevent their roofs blowing away, and with\nstaircases, clearly built for ornament, and completely unpractical,\nclimbing up the outside of their walls. Stations and banks and hotels\nseem to be constructed with a view to moderate permanence; the rest are\nclearly so made that they can be taken up and planted down somewhere\nelse. Then as we emerge on to the edges of the lake, higher hills begin\nto tower across its steely-grey levels, and rifts in the clouds that\nshroud their heads and hunched shoulders show glimpses of sun that shine\non the whiteness of snow. Mile after mile we pursue a meandering way\nalong the shores, and thread the darkness of hoarse tunnels, whose lips\nare fringed with dripping icicles, and the sense of something coming,\nsomething high and clear, begins to grow. Though in front, where\nInterlaken lies, a veil of grey-blue mist is interspersed between us and\nthat which, I know, soars above it, the clouds are beginning on all\nsides to become unravelled like wool-work pulled out, and through the\nrents and torn edges gleams of turquoise sky are seen. High up climb\nserrated rims of rock, cut vividly clear against the blue and fringed\nwith aspiring pines; higher yet, where the boldest of these brave\nvegetables can find no footing, further ridges appear austere and empty\nand gleaming. Yet these are but the outlying buttresses\nand ramparts of the great towers at the base of which they lean and\ncluster: to-night we shall sleep in an eyrie far above them, and far\nabove us yet will watch the unscaled precipices of the great range, over\nthe edge of which the unheeding stars climb and swim into sight all\nnight long, pouring the golden dew of their shining upon forest and\nglacier, until the snows are rosy with dawn.",
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+ "text": "We paused in Interlaken Central Station to draw breath after our\nlake-side amble. Here the snow lay crisp and hard-trodden in the\nstreets, but overhead the gutters gurgled and the eaves of houses\ndripped with its melting in this brilliant morning. No shred of cloud\nwas left in all the shining heavens, and like the flanks of a galloped\nhorse the pine-clad hillsides steamed in the sun.... And then the\nmiracle.... As we steamed forth again to the Eastern station, a long\nvalley lying between two wooded hills opened out, and there, clear in\nthe light of the young day, and white with virgin snows and blue with\nprecipices of ice, and set in the illimitable azure, rose the Queen of\nMountains, the maiden, the Jungfrau, peaked and domed and pinnacled in\nineffable crystal.",
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+ "text": "The Jungfrau is and will always be my mistress among mountains, as\nshe was when I first saw her at the age of twelve. One mistake I have\nmade in my conduct towards her, and that was ten years later when I\nclimbed her\u2014and yet who could tell she would prove so tedious and heavy\n(not in hand but in foot)? For I approached the lady of my adoration\nfrom the Concordia hut, and instead of feasting my eyes at every step on\nher queenly gracious carriage and maiden slenderness, I found that\nthe\ncloser I got to her the more did she appear round-shouldered, not to say\nhump-backed. In addition, a quantity of fresh snow had fallen, and we\nhad a long tiresome and utterly unexciting trudge, a hot and stodgy\naffair. I had imagined that ventures and perils would have to be\nencountered for this wooing and winning of her, with balancings and\npoisings on stairways of precipitous ice and needles of pinnacled rock:\ninstead she had to be solidly and laboriously and dully approached; it\nwas like wooing some great bolster or gigantic cow. For a little while\nafter that I cared nothing for her; she was a mature and silent barmaid\nof vast proportions, but gradually her charm and enchantment cast their\nspell over me again, the dissolution of which I intend never to risk in\nthe future, unless I approach her by a more hazardous and daring route.\nTo those who approach her dully, she gives herself dully: the more\ndaring wooer she may perhaps kill, but she does not bore him.",
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+ "text": "But the wonder of her, when seen through clear air with the brilliant\nwinter sky around her head from the entrance to this valley that leads\nup to Lauterbrunnen! Up it we steamed in a little angry rattling\nsnorting train, which cut itself in half to take some of its aspiring\ncontents to Grindelwald on the left, and others among whom I numbered\nmyself to Wengen and to M\u00fcrren. By the side of our way ran a turbulent\nmountain stream fed by the glaciers of the Oberland, too swift to freeze\naltogether, but with its backwaters and sheltered reaches covered over\nwith lids of ice. For all its glacier-birth steam rose from it in the\nicy air that hovered in shaded places, and the alders and hazels that\nhung over it were thickly encrusted with the marvellous jewellery of\nthe hoar-frost, spiked and parsem\u00e8s and refoliaged in wondrous\nwinter growth with tendrils and scrolls of minutest diamond-dust.\nNarrower grew the valley, steeper and taller the wooded hills that\noverhung it till at last we reached Lauterbrunnen, close to which the\nStaubbach, most amazing of all waterfalls, leaps a clear eight hundred\nfeet from the edge of the high plateau-shelf, which skirts along the\nmountain-side on to the rocks below. Even in summer, when the melting of\nthe snows that feed the stream make it of far greater volume than when\nthe stricture of frost is on it, the water, poured as from a jug-spout,\ndisintegrates in its fall, so that it reaches the valley more in wreaths\nof mist than in solid water, and collects again from the dripping rocks;\nwhile in winter its diminished volume is further spent in the\nmanufacture of the huge icicles that fringe the edge of its\nleaping-place, and hang in great streamers, the beard and hair, you\nwould say, of the very Frost-king himself, who sits at ease on this\nprecipitous throne. Little water to-day runs away from where the clouds\nof mist and water-smoke fall on the rocks, for most of them are frozen\nthere, and a layer of ice covers the boulders where they come to earth.\nFor here, so engorged lies the valley, so close to the great rampart of\nthe Oberland, that the sun which blazed on Interlaken has not yet\nsurmounted the barrier of mountain-peaks.",
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+ "text": "Parallel with the Staubbach, and up a hillside which appears hardly\nless sheer than the precipice itself, runs the funicular railway which\nleads to the M\u00fcrren-plateau. At first sight it seems as if it must be\nmeant for a practical joke, constructed by humorous engineers to\nastonish the weak minds of travellers, and, though practical from the\npoint of view of a joke, to be perfectly impracticable\nas a means of conveyance. Its steepness is that of disordered images\nseen in a dream, and it was with a sense of utter incredulity that I\nfirst took my place in one of the small wooden compartments and was\nlocked in by an apparently sane and serious conductor. He blew a\nwhistle, or a bell sounded, just as is done on real lines of traffic,\nand immediately afterwards we began to ascend that impossible line of\nrails, sauntering with smooth and steady progress up that ridiculous\nprecipice. More amazing still we soon observed a similar car sauntering\nsteadily down it, just strolling down, even as we were strolling up. We\nmet, we passed, and I had a vision of passengers smoking and chatting,\nas if nothing in the least remarkable was happening and imminent death\ndid not await us all....",
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+ "text": "But more remarkable things than that were happening. Upwards from the\nvalley we climbed on this Jacob\u2019s ladder that reached if not to Heaven,\nto very heavenly places. Pine woods and rocks melted away below,\nstreaming quietly downwards; presently we were level with the top of the\ntowering precipice from which the Staubbach was discharged, and\npresently that too was left below. But higher as we mounted there\nclimbed with us, in fresh unfoldings of glaciers and peaks and\nglittering snow fields, the great range of the Oberland. New peaks \u201cmet\nHeaven in snow,\u201d new ar\u00eates, too steep and wind-swept to allow\na vestige of snow to lie there pointed arrow-like to the tops above\nthem. Eiger, Monch, Silberhorn, and Jungfrau towered glittering just\nacross the Lauterbrunnen valley from which we had come, and as we sidled\nalong the upland shelf on which M\u00fcrren stands, gradually the whole range\nspread itself out in tremendous rampart,\nradiant, rejoicing, and austere. For foreground was this narrow ledge of\nwhite fields dotted here and there with cattle-ch\u00e2lets, and pines\nscattered singly or in companies, all wearing plumes and tippets of snow\nthat made their foliage seem a black blot in the sunlight, and soon the\ncongregation of village roofs appeared, and M\u00fcrren stood bathed and\nbasking in sunshine, drowned, so to speak, in the sparkling champagne of\nthe invigorating winter morning. And the intoxication of the high\nplaces, an entrancing vintage of oxygen and ice and sun, invaded limb\nand sinew and brain.",
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+ "text": "It is supposed by those who have never seen the infinite variety of\nforms into which frost converts mist and dew and all manner of water,\nthat there must be a monotony in those vast expanses of snow and ice.\nThey figure to themselves the depressing spectacle of snow as it usually\nappears in England, smooth and soft and wet, and too close a cousin to\nslush not to be tainted with a family resemblance; the image called up\nby ice is a grey surface in which are imbedded dead leaves, twigs and\nstones thrown on to it by boys for purposes not clearly understandable,\nwhile all they know of hoar-frost is an evanescent decoration that\noccurs at the edges of ditches and on lawns when tea is being made in\nthe morning and disappears as soon as the poached eggs, leaving the\ngrass soaked and dripping. But as is crystal to soap so are those\nradiant congelations of the High Alps to the same as seen beneath grey\nskies and unluminous days. Here, if snow has fallen, as sometimes\nhappens, while wind is blowing, it is driven into all manner of curving\nwave crests and undulations; then when the fall is over, the sky clears\nagain, a night of frost hardens and congeals the outlines, and the trees\nwear fine feathers and\nplumes of whiteness. As the snowfall packs with its own weight, there\ngrows on the surface of the fields a crust half snow, half ice, covered\nwith dazzling minute crystals. During the fall of the snow there has\nbeen moisture in the air, and often on that brilliant morning that\nsucceeds the fall, the air is full of minute frozen particles of water\nthat sparkle like the old-fashioned glass-decoration on Christmas cards,\nso that one walks through a shining company of tiniest diamond\nfire-flies. And the frozen surface of snow reflects the wonderful azure\nand gold of sun and sky, and here in the blaze it lies white beneath a\nvivid yellow, there in the shade a dim blue permeates it. After a few\ndays of hot sun more of the fall will have melted and slipped from the\ntrees, and they stand black-foliaged and red-trunked waiting for the\ndecoration of the hoar-frost. The one more night of frost covers every\nsprig and fir-needle with amazing spikes and fernlike sprays of minute\ncrystal. Wondrous are their growths, more particularly if, as sometimes\nhappens, some cold mist comes up from the valleys. Then with a craze for\ndecoration almost ludicrous, you shall see your friends with hair and\neyebrows bedecked with these jewels, each separate hair wearing its\nfrozen garniture, and their coats and stockings ornamented in like\nmanner. They grow white in a single minute almost; and such as have\nmoustaches, close to the moisture of their breath will suddenly turn to\nwalruses with long dependence of icicles. And yet\u2014here is a conjuring\ntrick again\u2014though ice and frost frame their faces they are conscious of\nno cold at all.",
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+ "text": "Marvellous, too, are the dealings of the frost with the running\nstreams and the lakes such as those at St. Moritz or Davos or Sils.\nOften, unfortunately, it happens that a snowfall will occur when they\nare but lightly frozen over, in which case the snow quite covers them,\nbreaks through perhaps in places, and with the ice already formed, makes\na rough uneven surface useless to the skater, and to the beholder no\nmore than a level snow-field, with perhaps ugly stains on it where the\nwater has come through and formed the grey ice, which is of no artistic\nmoment. But sometimes it happens that a snowfall occurs before any ice\nhas formed on the lake, and thus, though it lies on the surrounding\nground, it melts in the water, and at the end of the fall the lake is\nstill unfrozen, though the winter mantle lies over field and wood. Then\nlet us suppose there comes a hard frost with no more snow. Night after\nnight ice absolutely clear like glass forms on the water and gradually\nthickens. If the days are windless it is entirely smooth, and\npractically invisible, so that it is impossible to believe that you are\nnot looking on a sheet of water. Then the glad word goes forth that the\nlake bears, and you hurry forth to skate on it. But mountain and wood\nand landscape are all mirrored in it as in perfectly still water, and it\nis almost incredible that here is ice a foot or two thick. Tremblingly\nyou launch yourself on it, scarcely able to believe in its solidity; for\nthrough that unwavering surface you see every weed and stump under\nwater. The very fishes flit and flick visibly below your feet, and so\nglassy is it that through it it is possible to see the subaqueous\nfoundations of the lacustrine dwellings in the lake of Sils, never to be\nseen unless the lake is frozen, since the slightest ripple of the water\nsets the surface a-quiver and mars its translucency. But seen through\nthis foot or so of perfectly clear ice\u2014black ice, as it\nis called\u2014it is as if one looked through that charming contrivance\ncalled the bathyscope, by which you can observe the depths of the sea.\nBelow the ice, the water lies still and in a calm sheltered by this\nsolid ceiling of crystal, and you see, as if in an aquarium, the fishes\nand the water-weeds, and all the gales that ever blew will not shatter\nthe reflections or obscure the depths. Then when your courage has come\nto you, and you begin to grasp the fact that an army might march across\nthis invisible plain of ice without breaking through, you will no doubt\nventure forth from the shore, and feel what you never feel on rinks and\nother prepared surfaces of ice, the divine elasticity of your floor. And\nvery likely just when you are some half-mile from the shore, you will be\nterror-stricken to hear a crack as of artillery resound close to you,\nand a great crack will zigzag like lightning through the ice. The first\ntime you hear that, the present writer is willing to wager any\nreasonable sum that your face will blanch (unless too sun-tanned) and\nyou will skate with incredible celerity for the nearest land. But that\nsalvo portends no danger whatever, except if your skate-blade enters\nsuch a crack (of which there will be, unfortunately, a considerable\nnumber in the course of a few days) longitudinally. Then it is true you\nmay have a fall, but these explosions do not mean that you will ever be\nfood for fishes.",
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+ "text": "But after a few days, in all probability, even though no snow falls,\nthe surface of the ice, except where it is kept swept, becomes useless\nfor skating, thanks to another of the wonderful conjuring tricks of the\nfrost. Owing to dew, or from other moisture in the air, there begin to\nform upon the ice little nuclei of hoar-frost such as are seen in Plate\nVI. They look harmless enough, and with\nperfect justice you admire their exquisite fanlike fronds, and think no\nmore of them. But in a couple of days the same surface, as shown from\nthe identical point of view in Plate VII, presents a totally different\naspect, and one which is clearly discouraging to the most ardent of\nskaters. But then, since you are finally and completely and irrevocably\nthwarted in any ambition to skate on this depressing surface (for it is\nas if all the ice-moles in the world had made their common earth there,\nmultiplying exceedingly), you will be wise to examine and admire the\nastounding forms of this fairy frost-work before it becomes confluent,\nand, losing the individuality of its separate tufts, covers the whole\nlake like powdery snow. In Plate VIII you may see the marvellous\ndelicacy in detail of these bouquets of frost-flowers, and the same on\nlarger scale in Plate IX, where they are already becoming a very jungle\nof anti-tropical growth.",
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+ "element_id": "e672521e2897f6757aaeb0b7b2e28e68",
+ "text": "In that wonderful poem \u201cBy the Fireside,\u201d Robert Browning, in\nspeaking of the Alps in autumn, says:",
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+ "text": "\u201cBut at afternoon or almost eve",
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+ "\u201cBut at afternoon or almost eve"
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+ "type": "Title",
+ "element_id": "817a0b2075a1b1b60f3f598f3ce8a964",
+ "text": "\u2019Tis better; then the silence grows",
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+ "\u2019Tis better; then the silence grows"
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+ "element_id": "10bb23584023929b0712fd6d245564a1",
+ "text": "To that extent you half believe",
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+ "To that extent you half believe"
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+ "type": "NarrativeText",
+ "element_id": "d69b8c2c6cbd97f043f63759abedeaa3",
+ "text": "It must get rid of what it knows",
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+ "It must get rid of what it knows"
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+ "element_id": "c0e372bcbcbed976e90c1db92b283e81",
+ "text": "Its bosom does so heave.\u201d",
+ "metadata": {
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+ "Its bosom does so heave.\u201d"
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+ "text": "And that which he weds to such lovely language is another of the\nspells which the circle of the Alpine day and night weaves round us.\nOnly, I think, in winter the silence which he speaks of at evening, or,\nhe might have added at night, is a thing incredible to those who, I may\nalmost say, have never heard that silence. In spring or summer or autumn\nit is broken by sounds of cowbells\nperhaps, and, almost certainly by a murmur of wind in pine-woods, or of\nwater hurrying from the heights. But in winter, on a still evening those\nevidences of life are dumb, and yet the silence itself is pregnant with\nvitality. At sunset the high tops burn in rose-coloured flame, and as\nthe glory fades into the toneless velvet of the frosty sky, the stars in\ntheir wheeling are of a brilliance utterly unknown to lower altitudes,\nexcept perhaps where the desert lies fallow and dry beneath Egyptian\nskies, and no emanation from the earth dims the burning of these \u201cpatins\nof bright gold.\u201d But that \u201cquiring to the bright-eyed Seraphim\u201d reaches\nnot the mortal ear, and at evening or at night in these High Alps, there\nis felt, as it were, that ecstasy of silence that seems on the point of\nbursting into chorus: \u201cit must get rid of what it knows.\u201d Nowhere else\nhave I felt so rapturous a quality of stillness: the frozen snow lies\ntaut under the grip of the immense energy of the frost: no avalanches\nslipping from the snow-laden flanks of the Jungfrau under the hot beams\nof the sun, startle the valley with sonorous thunder: the wind stirs not\nthe lightest needle of the pines; the villagers are home from the frozen\nfields, and doors are shut. Slowly the last rose-colour fades from the\npeaks, and the stars brighten, and you hold your breath to hear the most\nwonderful thing you have ever heard\u2014utter stillness, that yet is\nstrained almost to bursting point with the energies that make it, the\npeace that passes understanding that lies above the snow and beneath the\nstars....",
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+ "text": "Then having heard it, having thought perhaps you understood it, or\nbest of all, being conscious that you do not understand it at all,\nyou may start for home, and glide on your skis down a slope to the very\ndoors of your hotel. Probably you will have a great many falls, for it\nis the most difficult thing in the world\u2014which is saying a good deal\u2014to\nski with the smallest success in a fading or faded light. But you will\nhave heard the silence of the winter night: that will generously console\nyou for your misadventures....",
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+ "text": "Plate V",
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+ "text": "BLACK ICE ON THE SILS LAKE",
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+ "text": "THE BUDDING ICE FLOWERS",
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+ "text": "Plate VII",
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+ "text": "THE FULL-BLOWN ICE FLOWERS",
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+ "text": "(twenty-four hours later)",
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+ "text": "MAGNIFIED ICE FLOWERS",
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+ "text": "CHAPTER\nII",
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+ "text": "RINKS AND SKATERS",
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+ "text": "Something has already been said about the\nswift-growing jungles of frost-flowers that so speedily cause the lakes\nin Switzerland to be utterly useless for all purposes connected with\nskates. It suddenly strikes the writer that the inexperienced in these\nmatters will have concluded that I mean that when once those\nfrost-flowers have formed all skating is over, and that if they have\ngone to Switzerland for the indulgence of this taste, all that is\nhenceforth to be offered them is the opportunity to admire this frozen\nvegetation instead of cutting figures. I therefore hasten to assure them\nthat lake skating in Switzerland does not count; indeed most\nwinter resorts have no lake at all; and even if they have, skating there\nis quite the exception and not the rule. In nine cases out of ten the\nsnow spoils the ice before it bears, and the frost-flowers spoil the\ngreater part of it, even if the snow has held off, almost immediately\nafterwards. Lake-skating, in fact, is of the nature of a bonus rather\nthan a dividend: to be enjoyed if it happens, but by no means to be\nreckoned on.",
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+ "text": "But at every Swiss resort there are rinks made, which render the\nskater independent of natural surfaces of ice, and those, at all\nwell-conducted places, are \u201cnew every morning,\u201d because every evening\nthey are swept and sprinkled with water, which by the ensuing day has\nfrozen, and presents a fresh surface to the\nzealot. In fact, an artificial skating-rink is as necessary an equipment\nin the Swiss winter resort as is the hotel itself. The construction and\nrenovation of these rinks is most interesting, and ranks among the fine\narts, just as does the architecture of a fine golf-links or the\npreparation of good wickets. These rinks are used for two purposes:\nskating, including bandy or ice hockey, and curling. I do not count\nice-gymkhanas or ice-carnivals, because anything is good enough for\nthem. You can play the shovel-game or crawl through barrels among the\njungles of frost-flowers. I do not imply that such entertainment is not\nexceedingly amusing; I only mean that the artist in rink-making paints\nhis masterpieces primarily for the sake of the skater and the curler,\nnot for the Pierrot with his Chinese lantern, or those who win\nthree-legged races.",
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+ "element_id": "9b5b8b63dcd545bfea41c83a7289f66a",
+ "text": "The technique of these ice-pictures is in brief as follows:",
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+ "text": "In the beginning of the creation (from the skater\u2019s point of view) a\npiece of ground is carefully and accurately levelled. This, if it is to\nbe the foundation of a well-and truly-laid rink in the ensuing winter,\nshould be done early in the spring, because the ground will have then\nhad time to settle down, and the inequalities which always occur in this\nsettling can be made good, before the first frosts of the autumn begin,\nand the soil gets fixed and frozen. Also, so I am told, the fact that\nthe ground will then be covered with a growth of weeds and grasses,\ncauses the foundation of the rink to be of better quality. This is\neasily understandable: the base is matted, and is probably more coherent\nin texture and less liable to contain holes through which the water may\ndrain away. Then, when the whole ground has been\ndoctored, i.e. when the small inequalities have been corrected\nand it is as uniformly level as can be expected of anything in this\nshifting world, everybody sits down and smokes (as is the habit of the\nSwiss peasant) till the first good snowfall comes, probably in November\nor early in December. Then the merry peasant has to put down his pipe\nand work begins again.",
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+ "text": "A row of them (I am describing the most up-to-date method) stand\nclose together with arms interlocked, in as straight a line as may be,\nand trample down all this beautiful fresh snow. Up and down they go, in\nslow time, stamping heavily with their great feet, and making out of\nperhaps a foot of snow some 3 or 4 inches at the most, of really compact\nand hard foundation. It will resemble at the best, as regards evenness,\na lane over which flocks of ponderous sheep have passed; but the\ngroundwork (this is the main point) will be of hardened snow, though\nextremely rough of surface. Then they may all sit down and smoke their\npipes again\u2014all, that is, except the headman and those who pull about,\nat his bidding, the yards of hose which at one end terminate in a brass\nnozzle, at the other in the water-supply, which should run in the main\nat high pressure. This water is then turned on to the compacted snow\nwhich gets soaked with it, and, if a few nights of hard frost follow the\noriginal snowfall, becomes gradually converted into a sort of rough but\nglazed and solid ice. Then, if nothing untoward happens, in the shape of\nthaw or further snowfall, the next step is taken. But if there is during\nthese few days a thaw, they have to wait for more snow to fall, and do\ntheir trampling over again; while if there is more snow, the poor\nwretches have still to trample and get the foundations firm again. But\nif all goes well\u2014and the experienced iceman will delay the original\ntrampling until the barometer or his weather-sense (preferably the\nformer) promises cold weather to follow\u2014he makes his second operation.\nHe will have built a small bank of snow perhaps 3 feet high and\nwell-spaded down, round his rink, and have sprinkled that as well as his\nrink surface, so that it is at any rate glazed with ice and water-tight.\nThen, waiting for a bright sunny morning, he floods the whole rink with\nperhaps 2 inches of water. The sunniness of the day is most important\nfor this operation: if he put on this flood on a cold day, or at evening\nwhen a frosty night was imminent, all the water he put on, lying on the\ncold frozen surface below, and with the frosty air above it would freeze\nsolid without cohering to the original frozen foundation. But putting it\non while the sun is hot, the top surface of the foundation is percolated\nwith the flood, and when the frost of the night follows, the flood binds\nwith it. One night possibly may not consolidate the flood: if it does\nnot, he waits till another night completes the work. All the time, it\nmust be remembered, the rink presents the most depressing appearance:\nlittle bits of frozen snow have floated up to the surface, frost-flowers\nperhaps have made their ill-starred appearance, and it still somewhat\nresembles a sheep-trampled lane. But then things begin to look better:\nand another inch of water is put on, and then another inch, and then\nanother, each being consolidated before the next is applied, and each\nbeing applied not in the evening, but when the sun will slightly melt\nthe previous surface. With each of these floodings the ice grows more\ndesirably smooth, and more immaculately clean, till at the end of\nperhaps a fortnight there\nis something like 18 inches of solid ice over the ground that was\nlevelled in the spring. At least this thickness is required if the ice\nis to last properly, for even in mid-winter the most sickening series of\nclimatic catastrophes may occur, which, unless there is good thickness\nof ice originally built up, may spoil the rink altogether. For on hot\nsunny days, though the surface of the ice remains quite dry, very great\nevaporation occurs, and the dryness of the air drinks up the melted ice\nbefore it visibly or tangibly becomes water. Or again, even in the most\nwell-conducted winters, at the most approved resorts, there may be a\ncomplete thaw, and \u201cthe pools are filled with water,\u201d which also\nevaporates. In both these cases, there is a consequent loss of ice, and\nthe bullion, so to speak, must be able to stand the drain upon it. Still\nworse, there may be a snowfall followed by a thaw, followed by a frost.\nThe thaw has eaten into the ice; the frost has caused this rodent\nmixture to get encrusted again. And then, if there is not good depth of\nice, the most excruciating events tread on each others\u2019 heels. The\nground below the thin ice is warmed with the penetrating sun, and begins\nto exude bubbles; the bubbles rise, and horrible water-blisters, skinned\nover with ice, appear. The skates crash through them (\u201cand langwedge\nwhich I will not pollewt my pen with describing,\u201d as Miss Fanny Squeers\nsaid) and cut into the half-frozen ground, which thereupon begins to\nleak. The most awful mess ... there are no words for it. Therefore it is\nnecessary, as soon as possible, to get a good thickness of ice.",
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+ "text": "But this building-up of the rink requires immense patience and\nforethought. Night after night when the building is going on, and\nthe weather is warm and beastly, the head iceman, if he is really\ncompetent, will sit up through the long tale of dark hours, keeping\nhimself awake with coffee, and watching the thermometer to see when it\nregisters sufficient degrees of frost to enable him to put more water on\nto the ice. He will wait all through a cloudy night, hoping for the sky\nto clear, in order to get a half inch more foundation. It is useless and\nworse than useless to apply more water unless there are several degrees\nof frost, for this only weakens his original trampled foundation of\nsnow, and leads to the awful trouble of blisters coming up from the\nground. But if even an hour or two before daybreak the temperature\nsinks, and there is a chance of gaining a further thickness of ice, he\nwill rouse his men, and at any rate spray or sprinkle the whole surface\nof the rink, in order to get a little more ice, just a little more.\nNight and day, like a mother over a sick child (I am not exaggerating),\na man like Rudolf Baumann, and others not so well known to me, will\nwatch over their rink, to console, to fill up holes, to add another\nfibre of underlying muscle.",
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+ "text": "But even when a couple of feet of solid ice are built up over the\nground, the trouble of the iceman is not over. Again a snowfall may\ncome, followed by a thaw, and the removal of this reveals sometimes a\nterrible sort of chicken-pox on the ice. If the snowfall is followed by\ncold weather, not much harm is done, for the snow is removed by shovels\nand barrows, and a sprinkle of water over the whole rink\u2014sprinklings\nbeing made at night, since a sprinkle freezes almost as it falls,\nopposed to the slower habits of a flood\u2014shows next day that the rink is\nno whit the worse. But if a thaw follows a snowfall, the general laws of\nnature are\nsuspended, in order to thwart icemen and skaters. Theoretically, the\nsurface of the ice below the melting snow will thaw evenly. Practically,\nit does nothing of the kind. The surface is unaffected in one spot, and\nimmediately adjoining it has thawed into a small round hole about 6\ninches in circumference. Why this happens I cannot say, except that it\nis part of the general malignity of natural law; but the effect is\napparent enough, and when the thawing snow is removed, the ice is found\nto be covered by numberless small holes. Each one of these has to be\nfilled up by hand, with a freezing mixture of snow and water, or better\nof pounded ice and water.... There are rinks in Switzerland 300 yards\nlong\u2014I leave the consideration of these, in the matter of labour\nrequired, to mathematicians who like dealing with progressions that\napproach the infinite.",
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+ "text": "Now the shrinkage of the ice already gained goes on all winter long,\nowing to the evaporation of the surface, and owing to the cutting edges\nof skates, which cover it with a sawdust of frozen stuff that has to be\nswept off every evening. This perpetual loss must be made good, or else\nthe rink would soon vanish altogether, and it is made good by floodings\nor sprinklings. A flood of a couple of inches over the whole surface is\nof course the easiest way of doing this, but it is far the least\nsatisfactory. For, as I have said, the flood must be put on while the\nsun is still on the ice, to enable it to bind into the ice already\nformed, and thus hours of daylight are lost to the skater. Furthermore,\nunless a really severe night follows, it will not be all properly\nfrozen. So the good ice-maker, instead of turning skaters off the ice,\nand getting by one flood sufficient thickness to last for three or four\ndays more,\nsprinkles instead. This is a far longer and more troublesome process,\nfor with his hose-pipe with its small nozzle he has to go over the ice\nagain and again, six or seven times perhaps, or more, in a single night,\nif ice is badly wanted. If it is freezing hard, each sprinkle will\nsolidify almost as soon as it falls, and sometimes he sprinkles all\nnight long; while if it is far too warm for a flood to have a chance of\nsolidifying, he will, unless a real thaw is going on, still find it\npossible to sprinkle once or twice before morning, even though there is\nbut a degree or two of frost. Another immense advantage that sprinkling\nhas over flooding is, that ice thus made, little by little, in\nexceedingly thin layers, lasts, for some reason, far longer than a\ngreater thickness of ice frozen solid in a single night. Why this should\nbe so, I do not know; but the fact is incontestable. Certainly also a\nflood of a couple of inches frozen solid is far more brittle in itself\nthan ice built up in thin layers, and an awkward toe-strike with the tip\nof the skate will cut a great chunk out of flood-ice, whereas it makes\nfar less impression on sprinkled ice. The sprinkle should be thrown far\nand high (as illustrated in Plate XIII), so that it comes down on to the\nice in fine mist-like rain that freezes quickly and freezes tightly into\nthe ice already there. Of course all these difficulties are not\nencountered in a perfectly cold winter. Given a hard frost every night,\nit is easy to keep pace with the daily evaporation. But even in the\nloftiest winter resorts in this excellent republic, mid-winter thaws\noccur.",
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+ "text": "Such in brief is the making of these rinks that seem such simple\naffairs when made, just a level piece of ice with a smooth surface. But\nthe knowledge, the care, the watchfulness which are necessary to\nsecure good ice that will last all winter and reasonably resist any\nthaws and snowfalls that may occur, are enormous. And the same care that\nis lavished on their making must be expended on their keeping. No one\nwith soil on his gouties or a cigarette even in his mouth should be\nallowed on the sacred surface, for even a feathery ash of tobacco if\nallowed to lie on the ice will get warmed by the sun and gradually melt\nits way into the ice. The sprinkle that night covers it, and it is\nembedded in the ice like a fly in amber. Again the sun shines on it, it\nmelts a little water round it, and forms the nucleus of what will spread\ninto a blister in the ice. Any dirt in the same way makes similar holes,\nand nothing but the clean skate-blade and the necessary and privileged\nboots of the icemen should ever be allowed on the rink. How amazed would\nbe the pioneers of outdoor artificial rinks if they could see the huge\nand perfect surfaces now yearly prepared for the hordes of foreign\nvisitors who flock to Switzerland. Of those pioneers John Addington\nSymonds was one, and in his charming essays he recounts how at Davos he\nand a few enthusiastic friends took exercise by incessantly working the\nhandle of a pump that stood in the middle of a level field, until, I\nthink, the pump froze. Then greatly daring they proceeded to skate over\nthe amazing ridges and shelves of ice which must certainly have been the\nresult of this hardy undertaking. Nowadays a reservoir must be built at\na sufficient height above the rink to secure a good pressure of water\nfor the sprinkling, and patient laudable men sit up all night watching\nthe thermometer to see if it is safe to offer water to the\ndelicately-nurtured crystal. But from these fine-art rinks has fine-art\nskating been evolved, and if the pioneers of rink-making\nwondered at our reservoir, our cohorts of workmen, our huge glassy\nsurfaces, still more perhaps would the skaters of those days be\nastonished to see some champion of the Continental execute his \u201cback\nloop change loop eight\u201d laying the loops on top of the other, or observe\nfour gentlemen of the English swoop down at top speed and on back edges\nto their centre, flick out four creamy rockers and glide away again to\ntheir appointed circumference. So much then for the skater\u2019s material\nneeds; we pass on to consider the use he puts them to.",
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+ "text": "Now there are two styles of skating (I do not refer to good skating\nand bad skating), known respectively as the English and the Continental\nor International. In past days, certain exponents of one or the other\nschool, with the mistaken idea that to belittle another was to magnify\nthemselves, fell into the stupid error of comparing the two to the\naccompaniment of robust vilifications of that style which happened not\nto be so fortunate as to number them among its adherents. But it is no\nexaggeration to say that the two styles have nothing whatever to do with\none another. It is true that the performer in each case is on skates,\nand that the skates progress over ice; but the very skates are\ndifferent; so, too, is the whole mode, manner, style, and effect of\nperformance, and it would be as reasonable for the Rugby football player\nto assert that Association is not real football, as for the English\nskater to label the International skater an acrobat or contortionist, or\nfor the International skater to call his detested English brother an\nexponent of the ramrod school. Many flowers of speech bloomed in the\ngardens of these controversialists, the more exotic and violently\ncoloured blossoms springing, I think, from",
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+ "text": "[Image unavailable.]",
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+ "text": "SKATING\u2014ENGLISH STYLE",
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+ "text": "From the Drawing by Fleming Williams",
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+ "From the Drawing by Fleming Williams"
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+ "text": "certain skaters in the International style, who were admirably\nindustrious at one time in their denunciation of anyone who ventured to\nskate in the English style. The present writer, for instance, who, poor\nfool, thought he was amusing himself quietly in attempting unambitious\nfeats in English skating, without interfering with anybody, had an open\nletter addressed to him in the Engadine Post, pointing out the\nvileness and wickedness of his heretic ways; and a precious little book,\nthat now lies open before me, which did not attract as much attention as\nits unconscious humour seems to warrant, informs us that the theories on\nwhich English skating are based are \u201cdiametrically opposed to every\nprinciple of nature, science and art, and at variance with the\nunrestrained freedom of action and movement which prevails in every\nother branch of athletic sport.\u201d Probably the writer felt better after\nthat, for we have heard nothing of him since; while with regard to the\nabove-quoted criticism, the only comment that need be made is, that on\nthe same silly lines it would be reasonable to call lawn-tennis at\nvariance with unrestrained freedom of action and movement, because it is\nnot part of the game to slog the ball wildly out of court.",
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+ "text": "But of late this controversy has somewhat died down, the fact being\nthat no one with the smallest knowledge of the difficulties and beauties\nof skating at all, in whichever of these two styles, ever joined in it,\nsince, whether in personal preference he was English or Continental, he\nhad sufficient acquaintance with skating matters to appreciate and\nadmire the excellence both of his own school and of that to which he\nowed no allegiance. He saw also that the two schools had nothing to do\nwith each other, and\ninstead of jeering at the other, contentedly practised at the one he\nhappened to prefer. Naturally, most Swiss resorts tend to one style or\nthe other; but at Davos, the original cradle of the modern English\nstyle, the two schools flourish side by side, as also they do at M\u00fcrren,\none of the newly-opened Swiss centres. There particularly\u2014at Davos there\nis a separate English rink, mainly occupied by English skaters\u2014you may\nsee the votaries of the different schools of this now obsolete\ncontroversy cheek by jowl on the ice, and lying down together, after a\nfall, like the lion and the lamb. At St. Moritz, similarly, both styles\nare bloodlessly practised, though the International style is the more\npopular; while Grindelwald is nowadays exclusively International, after\nhaving been exclusively English. So, too, is Wengen. On the other hand,\nat Villars, one of the largest skating resorts in the country, there is\nscarcely an Internationalist to be seen, and Ch\u00e2teau d\u2019Oex, Montana, and\nMorgins are similarly almost entirely English in their leanings. But\nwithout more enumeration it is sufficient to say that both schools\nflourish exceedingly, and will undoubtedly continue to do so, and\nnothing that anybody says will detract from the prosperity of\neither.",
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+ "text": "Now skating, in both these styles, is largely a matter of form, and\nherein it differs from nearly every other sport. It does not suffice in\nskating, whether you are English or Internationalist, to do\ncertain things, to cut threes, to execute rocking-turns, or loops or\nback-brackets. All these things have to be done in the manner prescribed\nby the Vedas, so to speak, of your school. Without doubt there is reason\nat the base of these methods, for it is clear that if, in a combined\nfigure, four English skaters were",
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+ "text": "SKATING\u2014CONTINENTAL STYLE",
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+ "text": "From the Drawing by Fleming Williams",
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+ "text": "allowed to fly into their centre on a back edge with their unemployed\nleg waving, and there execute a rocker, there would immediately be a\nheap of mangled bodies on the ice, a result which is not recognised as\nbeing among the objects of combined skating; and similarly, in the\nInternational style, the graceful poses of arm and leg, which ignorant\nEnglish skaters look upon as mere display, are designed to assist the\nmovement. But in all other games (and this is where skating differs from\nthem all) the point is to achieve a certain object, and the achievement\nof that object, however attained, renders the achiever a notable\nperformer if he consistently attains it. The golfer, for instance, who\nconsistently drives a long straight ball, puts his mashie shot near the\nhole, and generally putts out, is a magnificent golfer, in whatever\nmanner or style he executes these tyrannously difficult feats. There are\na hundred and a hundred hundred styles and modes of putting, and they\nare all good, provided only they enable the putter to hole his ball. At\ncricket, similarly, a man may bowl fast or slow with any sort of break,\nand with any sort of action (provided his shirt sleeve is not wantonly\nflapping), and he is a good bowler if only he gets wickets cheaply. But\nat skating the prescribed thing has to be done in the prescribed manner,\nand the prescriptions of the English school are, broadly speaking, all\nof them diametrically opposed to the principles of the International\nschool. In the English style the employed leg (i.e. the one\nwhich for the moment is being skated on) must be straight; in the\nInternational style it must be bent. In the English style the unemployed\nleg must be close to the other, and hang beside it, loosely and easily;\nin the International, wherever the exigencies of\nthe movement demand that it should be, it must at any rate never be\nthere. In English the arms must not be spread and swung abroad to assist\nthe movement, but must be carried inactively by the side, whereas in\nInternational, as long as the skate moves the arms must be engaged on\ntheir assigned activity. In both schools, in fact, every movement must\nbe executed in a given way, but in no case is there the smallest\nresemblance between those ways, though both should result in clean edges\nand clean turns executed at defined places.",
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+ "text": "It is not my intention to give here a manual of English skating,\nbeginning with instruction to beginners and ending with timorous hints\nto experts, but any book on Winter Sports would necessarily be\nincomplete unless it babbled to some considerable extent about skating,\nwhich, without doubt, is the sport in pursuit of which the large\nmajority of English folk visit the High Alps in winter. From whatever\ncause, this slippery art exercises a unique spell over the able-bodied\nand athletic section of Anglo-Saxon mankind. It may be that this is\npartly accounted for by the comparative rarity of the occasions on which\nwe can skate, owing to our Gulf-Stream-beridden and generally\npestilential climate, and it is sufficient that some puddle-place in a\nvillage green should be half-frozen to cause the majority, not only of\nyouth but of sedate men and women, to hurry down to the spot, and there\nslide about on both feet with staggerings and frequent falls and the\never-present possibility of occasional immersions. But the rarity of\neven half-frozen puddles in England does not wholly account for the\ntranscendent spell: there is something in the\nquality of motion which is started by a stroke of the tense muscles, and\nthen continues of its own accord, without effort or friction, until the\nimpetus is exhausted, that appeals to our unwinged race, who must\notherwise keep putting foot before foot to get anywhere. The sensation\nitself is exquisite, and the sensation is rendered more precious by the\nfact that from the days when the tyro slides cautiously forward on both\nfeet, to the days when, having become a master in his art, he executes\nback-counters at the centre in a combined figure, there is always a\nslight uncertainty as to what is going to happen next. The tyro\nrejoicing in the unaccustomed method of progress is conscious of a\npleasing terror as to whether he will not fall flat down, and glows with\ncallow raptures all the time that he does not; while the finest skater\nwho ever lived, will never be quite sure that he will flick out his\nback-counter cleanly and unswervingly. We can all walk pretty\nperfectly\u2014at least, there is no pleasing terror that we may be going to\nfall down\u2014but none of us at our respective levels as artists in skating\ncan skate pretty perfectly. We can only skate moderately well,\nconsidering how well we can skate. And the joy of it! The unreasoning,\ndelirious joy of the beginner who for the first time feels his outside\nedge bite the ice, and, no less, the secret elation of the finest\nperformers in the world, when they execute their back-counter close to\nthe centre, at high speed, and without the semblance of flatness in the\nedge! And even if any of us was so proficient as to perform such a feat\nwith absolute certainty, there is no doubt whatever that we should find\nsome further feat that would put us back into the dignified ranks\nof\nstragglers again. And the same holds good with regard to International\nskating: at least if there is any among those delightful artists who\nwill execute the Hugel star first on one foot and then on the other\nwithout a pleasing anxiety gnawing at his heart, I should very much like\nto know his name and black his boots for him.",
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+ "text": "To go more into detail with regard to the manner and style of these\nantipodal twins, we will take first the twin known as English skating.\nThis falls into two broad classes, namely, single skating and that which\nis the cream and essence of English skating, combined skating. A further\ndevelopment of combined skating, namely, combined hand-in-hand skating,\nhas not long ago been undergoing a successful evolution, under the\nauspices chiefly of Miss Cannan, Lord Doneraile and Mr. N. G. Thompson.\nWithout doubt it holds many charming possibilities, and very likely\nthere is a great future before it, but owing to right of primogeniture\nwe will first consider the two elder branches. In both the technique, so\nto speak, is the same. The object is to skate fast on large bold edges,\nto make turns of all sorts and changes of edge cleanly and without\neffort, and to skate all these turns and edges in a particular and\nprescribed manner.",
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+ "text": "The first consideration, therefore, is the manner. The stroke must be\ntaken, i.e. impetus must be set up, not with a push of our\nskate-toe into the ice, but from the inside edge of the skate blade. The\nreason is obvious, for if a skater thrusts his sharp skate-toe into the\nice he will make a hole in it, and damage the ice. That is sufficient: I\nthink there are probably four or five other\nreasons, which in a general and unspecialised treatise like this need\nnot be gone into.",
+ "metadata": {
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+ "text": "The skater having got his impetus by leaning against the inside edge\nof one skate, launches himself on the other. Now there are two edges to\na skate, namely, the inside and the outside. There is also the flat base\nof the skate. Both theoretically and practically, he never uses the flat\nof the skate in his actual progress. When he turns, whether the turn is\na three-turn or a rocker, or a counter or a bracket, he comes up to the\nflat for a moment, but instantly leaves it again. He progresses on one\nedge, the inside, or on the other edge, the outside. And while he\nprogresses, he must progress in the prescribed manner. And the\nprescription is this:",
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+ "text": "I. His head must be turned in the direction of his progress,\nwhether he is progressing forwards or backwards. Again common-sense\nis at the base of this rule. For if his head is turned in the direction\nof his progress, he is looking, unless unfortunately blind, where he is\ngoing. This avoids trouble to himself, if there are holes in the ice,\nand trouble to other people if there are other people on the ice.",
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+ "emphasized_text_contents": [
+ "His head must be turned in the direction of his progress,\nwhether he is progressing forwards or backwards."
+ ],
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+ "em"
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+ "eng"
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+ "element_id": "d1556d3d46f2939e22cc3e57965a606f",
+ "text": "II. He must be standing erect with his shoulders and body\nsideways to the direction of his curve, not facing square down it.\nIn other words, he must, among other things, be travelling not further\nforward than on the middle of his skate, otherwise he will not be\nstanding erect, but leaning forward. This attitude is that which is\nreferred to, in the humorous book I have already quoted, as\ncharacteristic of the ramrod school. But the author, in his blissful\nignorance of skating matters, is not aware that it is impossible\nto execute a long smooth circumference of curve if you progress on the\nforepart of your skate. If you are on the forepart of the skate, you\nmust be leaning forward, and no one of known anatomy can lean forward\nand execute a long smooth edge. The balance is unsteady, and the edge\nwobbles. Commonsense, then, again endorses this rule. In order to be\nsteady on a long edge, your balance must be of the established order.\nYou must be upright, and travelling without muscular effort to retain\nyour position. This is only attained by travelling on the middle or the\naft part of the skate. For nobody can stand still on their toes. But\nstanding on the middle part of the foot or with the weight on the heel\nit is perfectly easy to do so. But when this humorous author (whom I\ndrag out of his obscurity for the last time) calls this the ramrod\nschool, he proves himself ignorant of the first principles of English\nskating, or perhaps has only observed himself in some mirror at Prince\u2019s\nClub attempting to assume the correct attitude himself. As a matter of\nfact, the proper attitude of the skater in the English style is exactly\nthat of a man who is well made and master of his limbs standing still\nwith the weight chiefly on one foot. While skating, it is true, the\nweight is entirely on one foot, and the performer is moving, and not\nstanding still. But the pose necessary to smooth and swift progression\nis exactly that. It no more resembles a ramrod, when decently done, as\nevery good English skater does it, than it resembles a coal-scuttle or a\npince-nez, or what you will.",
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+ "emphasized_text_contents": [
+ "He must be standing erect with his shoulders and body\nsideways to the direction of his curve, not facing square down it."
+ ],
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+ "em"
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+ "text": "III. The unemployed leg, i.e. the leg of the foot which\nis not skating, must hang close to the employed leg. Again the\nreason is obvious. If four persons came into their centre with a\nwaving\nunemployed leg, they would hit each other. Also, if the unemployed leg\nis put out behind, the skater must lean forward in order to counteract\nits weight. He will then tend to skate on the forepart of his skate. In\na series of long edges this attitude is impossible to maintain except by\neffort. Nobody could skate for a quarter of an hour in combined skating,\naccurately and largely on such a principle.",
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+ "emphasized_text_contents": [
+ "The unemployed leg",
+ "the leg of the foot which\nis not skating, must hang close to the employed leg"
+ ],
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+ "em",
+ "em"
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+ "text": "IV. The arms must hang by the side, and be carried loosely\neasily, close to the body. Again the explanation is obvious. There\nis no need for their flying abroad, since a long edge is most easily\naccomplished with the limbs and body in rest after the stroke, and these\nlong smooth edges are part and parcel of English skating: it is founded\non them. English skating postulates so perfect a balance, travelling on\nthe middle of the skates, that it chooses (this is the reason for the\nrule) not to let that balance be assisted by the added or subtracted\nweight of a correcting arm. It says (this is what it comes to) that you\nmust be so firm on your travelling root, so to speak, of balance, that\nyou dispense with all adjustments of weight. The weight has to be\npractically perfectly adjusted. There must be no adjustments\nadventitiously obtained.",
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+ "emphasized_text_contents": [
+ "The arms must hang by the side, and be carried loosely\neasily, close to the body."
+ ],
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+ "text": "Now these four rules are at the base of English skating. If you\nhappen to play a game, you conform to the rules, and you do not argue,\nfor instance, when you are playing cricket, whether you should be given\nout, when quite clearly you have been caught at the wicket. If you are\nat all sensible, or in any way like cricket, you pocket your duck\u2019s egg\nand retire. Superb strokes may be made at cricket, which nevertheless\nare fatal to the striker.\nSuperb attitudes, similarly, may be made in the International style,\nwhich are quite completely wrong. They may be supremely statuesque, but\nthey are not skating. The case is exactly the same with the English\nstyle. Certain canons have been laid down, all of which seem to be\nnecessary to the attainment of excellence. It is no doubt possible to\nskate charming \u201cthrees to a centre\u201d doing everything quite wrong from\nbeginning to end. But if you choose to adopt a style, you must conform\nto the rules of that style. Similarly, it is quite possible to skate the\nsame \u201cthrees to a centre\u201d in the International style, which shall leave\nthe same mark on the ice (though the skating of them broke every\npossible rule) as the most finished performer could leave there. But who\nwould not applaud the International judge who ruthlessly ploughed such a\ncandidate? He has not kept the rules, which in contradistinction to\nother games prescribe not only what the object in view is, but the\nmanner in which the performance is to take place. But this manner, we\nventure to point out, has not been laid down in an arbitrary way: it is\nthe manner, both in International skating and in English alike, in which\nthe feats demanded can alone be properly performed.",
+ "metadata": {
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+ "text": "Now if the skater will take the trouble to conform to the four rules\ngiven above, he will find that even at the outset of his career there is\ngreat fun in store for him. Should he conform to them completely, when\nthe complication of turns is added, he will quite certainly find that\nthere is a championship, if he cares for that, in store for him also.\nThe rules were not negligently made; indeed they were never made at all,\nbut are simply the condensed experience of the best skaters, the methods\nby which the\nfittest survived. And the fittest did, and always will do, that which is\nrecorded in these rules, and the ensuing complications, even the most\ncomplicated of them, are comparatively easy to those who can maintain\nthe proper travelling position. But nobody who cannot hold a long firm\nedge, for which the proper travelling position is essential, need ever\ntrouble his dreams with the notion of becoming a good skater. And no\none\u2019s edges approach perfection, if he cannot traverse, on backward and\nforward edges, outside and inside alike, a distance of at least a\nhundred yards, given that the ice is reasonably good, without stirring\nfrom the attitude he has taken up after his stroke. A really fine skater\nwill traverse much more, and be still as a rock throughout his travel;\nbut no good skater will be so unsteady that he will not easily traverse\nthat. In his actual skating he will, probably, never be called upon to\nmake so lengthy an edge, but its accomplishment should present no\ndifficulty to him, if he aspires to be a fair performer. Even as the\npianist, when performing, is not called upon to play simple scales with\nboth hands, so the skater will not be called upon, in his combined\nfigure, to skate for a hundred yards on one edge. But both pianist and\nskater ought to find no difficulty at all in executing these simple\nfeats.",
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+ "text": "The beginner is advised to get a fair mastery of all the edges before\nhe begins to attack the fortress of the turns. He should be able to\nprogress steadily and smoothly both on the outside edge and the inside\nedge forward, and to make some progress also on the back edges, namely,\noutside back and inside back. This last is far the most difficult of the\nedges, and it will be a long time before he is able to take fast bold\nstrokes on it. But he should have\nsome acquaintance with it before he attempts to make the turns that\nnecessitate its employment, and be able to hold it in the correct\nposition. He can then set about turns and changes of edge, which all\nimply correct travelling.",
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+ "text": "Now there are four groups of turns, common both to the English and\nInternational styles, each group of which contains four turns to be\nexecuted on each foot. Altogether, therefore, there are sixteen turns to\nbe learned which employ each foot singly. These with the four edges,\nexecuted in the prescribed manner, form the material of the art. These\nturns are common both to English and International skating,",
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+ "text": "I. The first group is known as simple turns, and consists of turns\n(or changes of direction, from backwards to forwards or forwards to\nbackwards) from:",
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+ "type": "Table",
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+ "text": "(i) Outside forward to inside back. (ii) Inside forward to outside back. (iii) Outside back to inside forward. (iv) Inside back to outside forward.",
+ "metadata": {
+ "text_as_html": "| Group A |
| Max. Marks |
| Outside back two threes | 4 |
| Inside back two threes | 13 |
| Outside forward bracket | 6 |
| Inside forward bracket | 4 |
| |
| Group B |
| Outside forward two brackets | 6 |
| Inside forward two brackets | 10 |
| Outside forward bracket, three | 9 |
| Inside forward bracket, three | 5 |
| Outside forward three, bracket | 4 |
| Inside forward three, bracket | 12 |
| |
| Group C |
| Outside back two brackets | 14 |
| Inside back two brackets | 11 |
| Outside back bracket, three | 16 |
| Inside back bracket, three | 8 |
| Outside back three, bracket | 5 |
| Inside back three, bracket | 14 |
| |
| Group D |
| Outside forward rocker | 8 |
| Inside forward rocker | 4 |
| Outside forward counter | 8 |
| Inside forward counter | 4 |
| Outside forward centre choctaw and inside forward centre choctaw, beginning on each foot | 4 |
| Outside forward mohawk and inside forward mohawk to a centre, beginning on each foot | 4 |
",
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+ "type": "Title",
+ "element_id": "943c3f1fad7d67160a82369bb7886df5",
+ "text": "Reverse\nQ\u2019s",
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+ "emphasized_text_contents": [
+ "Reverse\nQ\u2019s"
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+ "text": "The turns and changes are to be made on the near side of fixed points\ndetermined by the candidate; the distance between these, and the lengths\nof the first and last curves, are to be each not less than 50 feet\nbeginning on forward edges, 35 feet beginning on back edges.",
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+ "type": "Table",
+ "element_id": "133323a69452ce6c962dfc1772ed31d1",
+ "text": "Group E Max. Marks. Outside forward three, change 2 Inside forward three, change 3 Outside forward rocker, change 3 Inside forward rocker, change 3 Outside forward bracket, change 5 Inside forward bracket, change 4 Outside forward counter, change 5 Inside forward counter, change 3 Group F Outside back three, change 5 Inside back three, change 8 Outside back rocker, change 6 Inside back rocker, change 8 Group G Outside back bracket, change 16 Inside back bracket, change 8 Outside back counter, change 16 Inside back counter, change 8 Group H Grape Vines Single, each foot leading 2 Double forward 3 Double backward 3 Pennsylvania 5 Philadelphia 6",
+ "metadata": {
+ "text_as_html": "| Group E |
| Max. Marks. |
| Outside forward three, change | 2 |
| Inside forward three, change | 3 |
| Outside forward rocker, change | 3 |
| Inside forward rocker, change | 3 |
| Outside forward bracket, change | 5 |
| Inside forward bracket, change | 4 |
| Outside forward counter, change | 5 |
| Inside forward counter, change | 3 |
| |
| Group F |
| Outside back three, change | 5 |
| Inside back three, change | 8 |
| Outside back rocker, change | 6 |
| Inside back rocker, change | 8 |
| |
| Group G |
| Outside back bracket, change | 16 |
| Inside back bracket, change | 8 |
| Outside back counter, change | 16 |
| Inside back counter, change | 8 |
| |
| Group H |
| Grape Vines |
| Single, each foot leading | 2 |
| Double forward | 3 |
| Double backward | 3 |
| Pennsylvania | 5 |
| Philadelphia | 6 |
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+ "text": "Now, again omitting for the moment the subject of combined skating,\nwe see that in Part II the rest of the groundwork of English skating is\nvery thoroughly traversed. To pass this final test the skater has to be\nable to execute all the threes (the two simple ones are omitted, as they\nhave already been required in the second test), rockers, brackets,\ncounters, mohawks, and choctaws at fair speed and on large edges at a\ngiven point on the ice. Having done that to the satisfaction of the\njudges, he has then to make his selection from a large number of 8\u2019s,\nwhich include practically most possible 8\u2019s comprising one or two turns,\nexcepting these simple ones with regard to which he has already\nsatisfied the judges in his second test. Here he has to score marks,\nselecting not more than one 8 of each group, and by the devilish\ningenuity of those who drew up this test, it is impossible for him to\nget through unless the majority of the 8\u2019s he selects to skate are\nreally difficult. He may then add to his marks by executing what are\ncalled reverse Q\u2019s at two given points on the ice. At the first of these\nhe has to make his turn, whatever it is, and at the second to change his\nedge. This requires a considerable degree of accuracy, for in order to\narrive smoothly and still at a fair travelling pace at the second point,\nhe will find that he has to have a practically perfect control of the\nedge, which has not been disturbed by executing a difficult back turn,\nlet us say, at the first given point. Finally, if he is still in want of\nmarks, he may earn a few more by a grape-vine. This latter does not\nproperly belong to English skating, since it is a two-footed figure, and\nthose responsible for the test might have omitted this group with\nadvantage.",
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+ "text": "The Combined Figure.\u2014Probably no branch of sport\u2014except,\nperhaps, flying\u2014has undergone such improvement and revolution within the\nlast fifteen years as this art of combined skating. Not only are there a\nvastly multiplied number of competent and even first-rate combined\nskaters, but the skill demanded of a first-rate combined skater, and the\nvariety of the man\u0153uvres he may be called upon to execute, is\nimmeasurably greater than a decade and a half ago. I do not mean that\nthere were not in 1897 a certain number of skaters who might have been\nable to execute a difficult set as directed by a caller of to-day, but\nthese were, in golfing parlance, \u201cplus players,\u201d and the ordinary\n\u201cscratch\u201d skater\u2014one, that is, who had passed his First Class\nN.S.A.\u2014would have had no more chance of getting through such a set\nwithout throwing everybody out, and himself down, than he would have of\nflying. Both the speed and the size of these combined figures has\ngreatly increased, and the whole of the material of English skating is\nemployed. And the main reason for this improvement and revolution is due\nto the greatly augmented number of English skaters who now go to\nSwitzerland in the winter, and the multiplication there of really large\nrinks.",
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+ "The Combined Figure."
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+ "text": "That this immense improvement has taken place in combined skating is\nproved, luckily, not only by the fallacious memory of individuals, but\nby printed records. I have before me the Badminton volume on skating\n(edition 1902), in which, for instance, we find the following figure\n(among many others like it).",
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+ "text": "\u201cForward two turns. This movement skated to a centre is very\ndifficult, and is a great test of good skating, and many men make a\npractice of devoting five or ten minutes to skating it every day\nwhen they come on the ice, feeling that if they can skate it, making the\ncurves between the turns of equal length and making the turns clean\nwithout any scrape and yet coming true to the centre, they are in good\nform and equal to skate anything that may be required of them.\u201d",
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+ "text": "Now no doubt two turns to a centre, as required in the second-class\ntest, is a very good elementary figure, but it no longer has anything\nwhatever to do with combined skating, whether it is skated with a\npartner or with a second pair, or simultaneously with other skaters.\nSpeed and size and difficulty (as demanded by the scale on which\ncombined skaters now move) are necessarily absent from it, and from a\nhundred others of these calls which then were the last word in combined\nskating. A man who had passed his second-class test would be capable of\ndoing this, which was then considered a criterion of good combined\nskating, whereas the same man could not live for two calls in a combined\nfigure of moderate difficulty to-day. The whole nature of the business\nhas changed: turns have to be executed at high speed far away from the\ncentre, and the curliness and smallness of such skating as is here\nimplied and necessitated has vanished altogether, giving place to a far\nmore difficult style and speed.",
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+ "text": "Nor, again, in this respect, is Part I, in the first-class English\ntest, up-to-date in requirements of size. Here we read that on a \u201ctwice\nback\u201d the candidate must recede at least 35 feet from the centre. That\nno doubt was laid down because on the artificial rinks available in\nEngland, such a distance took the skaters nearly to the bounds of the\nspace at his disposal. But any candidate who, on the Swiss rinks, where\nnowadays almost all first-class tests are passed,\nreceded but 35 feet from the centre would have, practically speaking, no\nchance of getting through. His lawless judges would inevitably tell him\nto skate larger. Still less would he be able to take part in any\ncombined figure-skating for amusement by skaters who had any pretension\nto be of the first-class. With these big surfaces of rink, the whole\nstyle and method has become larger and faster, and therefore more\ndifficult.",
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+ "text": "A third instance, to prove how greatly the art of combined skating\nhas progressed, has the ring of pathos about it, and, though only oral,\nis trustworthy. A friend of mine, who resides at that excellent English\nskating centre, Oxford, told me that in old days he could scarcely get a\ncombined figure, since the most elementary calls were sufficient to\nfloor his partners. But not so long ago he told me he could scarcely get\na combined figure, since nobody cared to skate such elementary calls as\nhe was capable of. But he assures me that he skates just as well now as\nhe did in the days when there was nobody up to his standard. Perhaps in\ntwenty years more, no first-class skater will care to engage in such\nsimple stuff as we now think rather advanced. And dearly will such\npresent-day skaters who are fortunate enough to be alive then, love to\nsee the newer and more arduous man\u0153uvres! But since it is impossible to\nprophesy about the things we cannot imagine, it must be sufficient to\ngive the outlines of combined skating as practised by fairly expert\ngentlemen to-day.",
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+ "text": "There are two manners of combined skating, called respectively\npair-skating and simultaneous skating. The first of these (which we will\nfirst consider) is the more difficult, and, so to speak, the more\nclassical. Theoretically it can be skated by two, four, six, or\neight persons: practically it is skated by four persons, grouped, at the\nbeginning of things, at right angles to their neighbours, and at a few\nyards distant from their centre. One of these, who skates in the first\npair, is known as the caller, and he announces (in a loud mellifluous\nvoice) what he is about to skate, and what the trembling gentleman\nopposite, who is his partner, must also skate. They advance to the\ncentre, from opposite sides, and begin skating whatever is ordered. The\nmoment after they have left their centre, speeding out to the\ncircumference of the huge imaginary circle, of which their orange or\nindia-rubber ball, from which they have started, is the centre, the\nsecond pair (at right angles to them) proceed to do exactly the same.\nThe size and pace of the figure, as well as its details, depend entirely\non the caller: as he skates, so must his partner skate, putting down his\nedges and turns simultaneously and at like speed to him, and as the\nfirst pair skate, so (with certain modifications) must the second pair\nskate.",
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+ "text": "Now, the whole material of skating is at the caller\u2019s command. He can\n(and does) order threes, brackets, rockers, counters, mohawks, choctaws\nand changes of edge to be skated when and how he wishes them. He can\n(and does) couple any pair or any three of these movements, to be skated\non one foot or on both, one after the other. He directs, with a word of\npower, from the elaborate vocabulary of combined skating, the length of\nan edge, and can command it to be held so long that the direction of\nprogress is reversed, or to be further continued till a complete circle\nis made and the original direction of progress resumed again. Then, with\nanother word, he brings himself and his partner (followed\nclosely by the second pair) back to their centre again, on the off side\nor the near side of it, and orders that they shall start a fresh figure\nthere, or that they shall make a turn there, or scud by it like four\nexpress trains which just, and only just, arriving from the four parts\nof the compass, do not collide with each other, and scatter again to\neast and west and north and south. Sometimes he brings them in\nsimultaneously, so that they converge till they almost touch, and then\nspread out again. And if the figure is going decently well, there is no\npause, no foot without its edge and turn assigned to it. This mystic,\nswift, interweaving dance lasts perhaps a quarter of an hour of hard,\nenraptured skating.",
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+ "text": "Simultaneous combined has this advantage, that an uneven number of\nskaters can take part in it. The caller\u2019s duties are the same, but there\nare no pairs of partners. All leave the centre simultaneously, all (it\nis hoped) arrive back at it simultaneously. Since there is no crossing\nof pairs at the centre, a far larger number of skaters can take part in\nit, as they have not to wait for a prior pair to clear, and if\nelementary calls only are ordered, upwards of ten or twelve skaters can\njoin the dance with effect. No one of them, as in pair skating, crosses\nthe path of another skater: they leave and arrive at the centre on\nconverging not crossing lines. Thus it is an easier sport than is\ncrossing pairs, since in the latter case the edges that leave and\napproach the centre intersect each other. Vastly enjoyable as it is, it\nlacks to the present writer that classical distinction that\ncharacterises pair-skating.",
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+ "text": "The final item in English skating is hand-in-hand skating in the\ncombined figure. Here, instead of single skaters combining to\nperform in unison, pairs take the place of units. Necessarily the\nfigures compassable by a man and woman hand in hand are fewer in number,\nas at present worked out, than those which can be skated by single\nskaters, and the speed at which such figures are skated is less than in\nthe combined skating of single skaters. Hand-holds have to be changed,\nand partners brought into the new position required by turns, &c.,\nby pulls, or by what in the nomenclature is called \u201csteps\u201d\u2014i.e.\nsingle strokes and edges. Already this style has taken the place in the\nannual championship of English skating, and without doubt it will grow\nboth in the number of its practitioners, and in the force and speed of\ntheir movements. It is scientifically based, being evolved from the\ncharming movements that are possible to hand-in-hand skaters when going\nfree on the ice, and not bound to consider their opposing partner, or to\narrive in a given manner at a given point. But it resembles, at present,\nin the opinion of the writer, the performance of a yearling. It requires\nthe devotion of a dozen first-class skaters of both sexes to determine\nits possibilities. His wish is, that it will get them. His fear is that\nthe necessarily cramping influence of conjoined hands will prove to\ndebar it from the speed and largeness of other branches of English\nskating. He sincerely hopes that his fears are quite unfounded.",
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+ "type": "Title",
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+ "text": "International Style",
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+ "International Style"
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+ "text": "It has been already remarked that the two styles, English and\nInternational, have nothing to do with each other, and that the\npractitioner of one who is so imbecile as to belittle the other, is no\nless crack-brained and idiotic than a Rugby football player who calls\nAssociation a \u201crotten game.\u201d Personally, I do not skate in the\nInternational style, but to attempt to depreciate the beauties of it\nwould be to me as unthinkable as it would be to run down polo. To the\nspectator, whether of polo or of International skating, the skill and\nthe splendour of these sports are, unless he is entirely lunatic, beyond\nany question at all. But it is as an admirer, pure and simple, that I\nventure to embark on a subject with which I have no practical\nacquaintance.",
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+ "text": "Spectacularly there is no doubt that to the ignorant the\nInternational style rightly makes the most powerful appeal. A simple\nman\u0153uvre, as for instance a forward three to a centre, looks far more\ndifficult and hazardous when executed even only moderately well in the\nInternational style than when executed almost perfectly in the English\nstyle. In the one case, to the ignorant, arms and legs are flying: it\nseems impossible to maintain a balance, and the attitude itself is\ncharmingly graceful: whereas in the English style the whole difficulty\nof the man\u0153uvre, such as it is, lies in the necessity of making it look\neasy, and standing quite still and at rest.",
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+ "text": "But the difficulty of doing it perfectly in the English style is, as\na matter of fact, far greater than that of doing it properly in the\nInternational style. Of that there is no question whatever. A good\nEnglish skater will put down his turns and edges one over the other, in\nthe accurate fashion so rightly demanded by the International style,\nwithout producing half the effect that a good International skater will\nproduce. But the English skater has done the more difficult feat. On the\nother hand, I do not think that\nthe skater in the English style is ever called upon to do anything so\ndifficult in his highest test as the back-loop 8, or perhaps the rocker\n8, as required by the first-class International test. And then I think\nof a back bracket, executed at good speed at a certain point, in the\ncorrect style. Really I do not know.... Also I do not care. The\nback-loop 8 of the International skater is altogether lovely, which is\nall that matters.",
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+ "text": "But, as I have said, the two styles have nothing to do with each\nother, either as regards tests or as regards the general sport of them.\nI can imagine no more glorious athletic feat than that of four\nfirst-class English skaters performing a really difficult combined set\nproperly, a set that is as far away from the compulsory set of the\nfirst-class test as is the first-class test from the second; nor, on the\nother hand, can I imagine a more glorious athletic feat than the free\nskating of some champion of the International school. But when Mr.\nGrenander or Herr Salchow are so kind as to show me the Hugel star, I no\nmore think of comparing that with the combined skating of fine\nperformers in the English style, and others, than I compare it with Mr.\nBaerlein in the tennis court or Mr. Jessop slogging his sixes. They have\nnothing to do with each other.",
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+ "text": "As in English skating, I propose to lay before the reader the tests\nof the International school, and in contrast to the rule of English\nform, I subpend the essential requirements of International excellence,\nas laid down by the collective experience of its senators. Proper form\nis no less essential in one than in the other, and the same sternness of\nrequirement is insisted on in both. But the\neffect is poles apart: in the International style a fixed freedom of the\nunemployed limbs is necessary, in the English a fixed quietness and\nimmobility. Neither is laid down in an arbitrary manner: it is\nimpossible to perform the necessary evolutions in first-class skating\notherwise than is provided by the rules. No English skater could, in his\nprescribed form, execute the International figures: no International\nskater in his could do what is required of his English brother. Here,\nthen, are the essentials of good form as demanded by the International\nschool:",
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+ "text": "\u201cCarriage upright but not stiff; the body not bent forwards or\nsideways at the waist; all raising or lowering of the body being\neffected by bending the knee of the tracing leg with upright back; the\nbody and limbs generally held sideways to the direction of progress. The\nhead always upright. Tracing leg flexible with bent knee. The eyes\nlooking downwards as little as possible. The knee and toe of the free\nleg turned outwards as far as possible, the toe always downwards; the\nknee only slightly bent. The free leg swinging freely from the hip and\nassisting the movement. The arms held easily, and assisting the\nmovement; the hands neither spread nor clenched. All action of the body\nand limbs must be easy and swinging with the direct object of assisting\nthe movement of the moment; violent or stiff motions are to be avoided,\nthe figure should seem to be executed without difficulty.",
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+ "text": "\u201cThe figures must be begun from rest\u2014that is, by a single stroke with\nthe other foot; and at the intersecting point of two circles. Every\nfigure must be repeated three times consecutively. No\nimpetus may be taken from the ice by the foot which is about to become\nthe tracing foot; and every stroke should be taken from the edge of the\nblade, not from the point.\u201d",
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+ "text": "There are also the following directions for correct tracing,\ni.e. the marks left by the skate on the ice.",
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+ "text": "\u201cThe essentials of correct tracing are:",
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+ "text": "\u201cMaintenance of the long and transverse axes (as the long axis of the\nfigure a line is to be conceived which divides each circle into two\nequal parts; a transverse axis cuts the long axis at right angles\nbetween two circles); approximately equal size of all circles, and of\nall curves before and after all turns; symmetrical grouping of the\nindividual parts of the figure about the axes; curves without wobbles,\nskated out\u2014that is, returning nearly to the starting-point. Threes with\nthe turns lying in the long axis; changes of edge with an easy\ntransition, the change falling in the long axis.\u201d",
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+ "text": "In this form, then, and with this accuracy of tracing, the following\nfigures must be skated for the third test:\u2014",
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+ "type": "Table",
+ "element_id": "131d190bb29dc2576a8c2f1510c67ff6",
+ "text": "Eight Rfo\u2014Lfo Eight Rfi\u2014Lfi Eight Rbo\u2014Lbo Change {( a ) Rfoi\u2014Lfio {( b ) Lfoi\u2014Rfio Threes RfoTbi\u2014LfoTbi R = Right. L = Left. T = Three. f = Forwards. b = Backwards. o = Outside. i = Inside.",
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