Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1880 — Snow-Shoeing in Norway. [ARTICLE]

Snow-Shoeing in Norway.

Of all the bodily exercises I know of, there is none in my opinion that can come up to snow-shoeing, as it is done in Norway. Skating is nothing compared to this sport. What can equal the splendid sensation of flying across the deep snow at the rate of many miles an hour, without hardly moving a muscle? And then, going down hill, staff in hand, no exertion necessary other than to keep the balance, while gliding softly but swiftly onward. Unlike the Canadian snow-shoes, these ski (pronounced shec) of the Norwegians are often fully twelve feet long, curving upward at the prow, and are not broader than three or four inches. Tliroughout the whole length they are provided with a groove for the purpose of keeping them from slipping when going at an angle down hill. Although by no means slow when used across level ground, it is yet downhill that they are most effective, for their long length and their polished undersurface on the frozen snow cause a speed more like flying than any other motion I know of. The inhabitants of Telemai ken, in the South of Norway, are most efficient ski runners, and at the annual competitions at Christiania generally bear off ihe prizes. At the competition there in 1879, one of these men leaped, according to a local newspaper, a distance of thirty Norwegian alcn, or fully sixty feet! Into this country it will be impossible to introduce them, as of course there would be little or no opportunity for using them—the snow never lying long enough or becoming sufficiently deep. — Blackwood.