Page:The American Boy's Handy Book edition 1.djvu/319

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Chapter XXXI.
The Winged Skaters, and How to Make the Wings.

Skimming over the glassy surface of an ice-bound river or pond, propelled by the wintry blast blowing against artificial wings of cloth, is but a degree removed from flying. The friction of your skate runners upon the ice is so slight that it is not difficult to imagine that you have left the earth and are soaring in mid-air.

Every boy who has had any skating experience knows what hard work it is to skate against a stiff wind, and almost all who ever fastened skates to their feet must have enjoyed the luxury of sailing over the ice before the wind with a spread coat or open umbrella doing duty as a sail.

For some time back people in widely separated parts of the world have made more or less successful attempts at transforming themselves into animated ice-yachts, and in Canada, Norway, and other cold countries, men with sails rigged on their backs or shoulders have "tacked," "come about," and "luffed" themselves in a novel and highly entertaining style, but lately, for some reason or other, this sport has been allowed to almost die out, and we are now indebted to two or three writers for reintroducing skate-sailing to the public with original suggestions and improvements. Mr. Charles L. Norton, editor of The American Canocist, was, I believe, the first to call the

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