Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1883-01-14
"sKILoBSISG.,
New and Popular wister sport In ror-
way.

Running on skates. or tskilobning,
Is prominent winter sport with th'
| Norwegians, and Is one that nigh
take with Americans who have th,
opportunity TO follow IL. Skilobnint
possesses the advantage Of being mex
pensive, and Is certainly exciting
Judging by the following description
Of IL given by "A correspondent OF the
London Field. The Norwegian snow
skates must not be confused with the
Canadian. which are much broader
and used In quite different way.
The Norwegian snow skates
are made entirely of wood.
Their length il about eight feet,
and their breadth three inches to four
| inches, the fore part being a little
pointed and curved upward. The un-
der side IL very smooth, sometimes
with small groove planned along the
middle. Some people use them tightly
fastened 10 the feet; others only put
the fore part of the foot through a
witty band fastened to the skate,
which enables them TO withdraw
from IL easily in case of u fall. The
different parts of the country have
their own shape OF snow skates, either
"a little narrower or broader, shorter or
longer. At Cleve, I'm Germany, last
year the club exhibited all these
shapes, as well as photographs Of a
runner in different positions, to show
their use. / do not know exactly
wheh skate,ruhnihg was iirst regaraeu
as sport; but history shows us that
skates were used more than IA thous-
ana years ago, during tne
then frequent civii wars. In
those oid days IL would nave oeen
Impossible lor tne innaoitants : tne
different valleys 10 communicate win
eacn other III very snowy winters
without this apparatus. only by
means oi skates could the OLD Warriors
make Their last marches III winter
through trackiess ana unpeopied
regions. NOW hlghroads ana ran
ways nave made them supernuous ior
the army tthongh 40 not think III IL
more than twenty-five years sine the
last battalions OF snow skaters were
given up and also FOR peasants,
though lihinany parts OF the country
they still are and always VIII be neces-
sary - for instance, in the highest
parts OF Norway, where the nomadic
rims ramble with their herds OF thous-
ands of tame reindeers from one noun
tain to another. Only by the necessity
OF using the snow-skates one can eX-
plain the wonderful expertness at
which our peasants arrive.
In order to get to the top of a hill
the skater tacks up the sides OF the
mn like ship against the wind, slid
ing ON the surface of the snow, and
never lifting his feet from the. ground,
except when making side turn, or he
goes straight up, linlnB one foot side
ways over the other. a staff about
live feet long, graspcd with both hands,
Is used by some people, either on the
left or right side. The hill chosen for
exercise or matches Is often hundreds
OF feet high, and pretty steep, of course,
according To the ability OF the runner.
Let us now commence the descent. AT
ter a few steps the speed soon increases
80 much that you can hardly breathe,
and all your thoughts must be concen-
trated on keeping your balance. In
the lower part of the hill the accelera-
ton produces speed which may
sometimes he compared with that of
express trains. Should you feel symp-
toms OF an approaching loss of balance
you must use your staff, which
VIII partly nelp 10 keep tne balance
and partly retard the speed. But If
you use the staff too much you are
called "staiI.rider," and not con-
sidsred az a good runner; therefore
people avoid it "A much as possible,
and many never use it Mt all, even
down the most difficult hills. There
are often drops on the sides of the hill,
either from following it's natural out
line or caused by snowdrifts. When
the runner comes to one of these he
has To make an aerial voyage; and the
most difficult moment is when he
comes TO the ground again, rs il Is n
matter of chance whether he will land
on his feet or makes series of somer-
salllts and be buried in the snow.
A few gears ago club was formed in
Christiania for running on snow skates,
and this has still more tended to in
crease an interest in the sport. Chris
tiania itself, at the inmost end Of the
pretty Christiania ford, Is surrounded
by hills very tit for snow-skate run
ming, and, ms we generally have sufii-
cient snow for some four or five months