The Portland daily press., 1894-12-08

tunate skeeists, and dash away across
the open, towards the alder swamp
there to finally stop in a tangled mass
of legs and skees and bushes.
Finally the more reckless enthusiasts
began to look with longing eyes at the
second slope They ventured half way
up and came dashing down over the
brow of the first SLOPE The first time
that the slide of the entire hill was
made, was when there was no drift. 1t
was memorable day in the experience
of the few students who tried it. The
long waiting on the top. and the penslve
gaging over the wide landscape and the
alder swamp far below. while courage was
being gathered, will never be forgotten,
neither will the sinking sensation at
the heart when the start was finally
made. like a plunge into icy water,
and it was "do or de-" for retreat was
impossible. The feeling while dashing
over the brink of the lower slope would
compare favorably with what one would
probably experience at being launched
into space from the mouth of cannon.
To those watching below, who could
not see the top of the hill, the skeel st
seemed to leap forth suddenly from out
of the sky and as he dove down the
steep, lower slope, for a short distance
near the top, only the back ends of his
skees dragged in the snow. But small
proportion of the boys ever tried the
long slide from the top and they we're
never sure of doing it successfully. But
they were successful frequently. and even
after the drift had come they leapt
over that, and continued to the foot Of
the hill.
Prof. Flint was undou btedly the first
Maine citizen to make and use a pair Of
skees But in the summer of 1870, Hon.
W. W. Thomas Jr, brought over his col
ony of Swedes to Aroostook, and that
winter these immigrants used skees in
Maine for the first time just one year be-
fore Prof. Flints' first boyish Trial of the
new snow shoe. Skees have been used
in Aroostook ever since and the practice
has constantly increased till DOW some OF
the Swedes make a business in the WIN
ter, for short time, of supplying them
to customers. The Aroostook skee is
made after the Norwegian or Swedish
model being very narrow and thick. The
snow of that northern section of Maine
is much more suitable for such skees
than farther south. Of late years the
skee has been introduced into several
other localities Of the State, but there
are still whole counties where they were
never even heard Of But we venture to
predict that judging by the increase in
popularity during the past decade, be
fore the end of the century the Norwe-
gian snow-shoe will be universal play
thing among the boys of Maine, though
it will never occupy the place there that
is does in Norway, as a snow shoe for
hunters and woodsmen and all who have
occasion to leave the public throughfare
during the winter and enter the fields
and forests. 1t will never supplant the
raw-hide snow-shoe, because it's proper
sphere as useful implement, as well as
plaything, is in more northern ATTITUDES,
where the cold is intense and continuous
and the snow becomes hard ana solid.
Frozen snow is the snow for skees be-
cause wood slips best when the snow is
dry. The Indians raw-hide snow shoe
is more suitable for Maine, because more
available for the variety of the weather
and consistency of the snow.