Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1879 — Military Skaters. [ARTICLE]

Military Skaters.

Oallgnanl’g Messenger. . Tne corps of stutters, a force peculiar to the Norwegian army, has been lately reorganized, and consists now of nve companies, each df 110vnen,which in time of war can be re-inforced by calling in 270 skaters belonging to the landwehre. The men of this corps are armed with rifles, and can be manenvred unon lee or over the snowfields ot the mountains with a rapidity equal to that of the best trained cavamr. The skates they use are admirably adapted for traveling over rough and broken toe or frozen snow, being six inches broad and between nine and ten inches long. In asoending steep slqpes the men take a zigzag course, tasking up the mountain-side as a ship does against a bead wind. As an instance of of the speed at which they can go, it Is mentioned that last winter a messenger dispatched from Roeraas at 8 o’clock in the morning arrived at Dronthelm at 9:30 in the evening of the same day, having, consequently, accomplished 120 miles in 18* hour*. - It must be added, however, that Roeraas lies some 2,000 feet higher thaa Drontheim, so that tbe course of tbe skater was down hill the whole way. On the return Journey the same man took fifty-four hours to reach Rocraas from Dronthelm, but the route he took led him over very rough and broken show-fields, which rendered great caution and Blow skating necessary.