but it must be the study of the skater to increase the size as soon as possible, and also to endeavour to make two complete circles alternately, and he will then have the fifth 8; and to make this 8 so that sufficient impetus be sustained to continue the movement, great dexterity must be attained (Fig. 21). The finish must be as large a spiral as practicable, which teaches the unemployed foot a new lesson in stopping behind crossed, until the state of rest, or the usual attitude belonging to the sideways position, is attained. THE CROSS OUTSIDE BACKWARDS. Travelling slowly on the ordinary outside backwards of the left leg, let the right be swung gently round at the back of and across the left, and placed down in that position, and the stroke made from the outside of the left ; then, travelling on the outside backwards of the right, the left should be swung gently round at the back of and across the right, and placed down in its turn, and so on (Fig. 22). The tendency of the practice will be even smaller, at first, in this than in the forward cross; but by sticking to it, it will gradually become possible to make the curves larger. The two alternate circles for the sixth 8 (Fig. 23), which the skater must learn to keep going, must then be tried; for these self-sustaining 8's, whether forwards or backwards, are, as we have already said, the test of a skater's power in that direction. In putting the foot down in these movements care should be O. B. L. R.F FIG. 23. L. F. O.B.R. taken, not only as to the turning out of the toe in the direction of the circle to be described, but the heel, and not the toe, should in backward movements first come in contact with the ice. It has been known long ago that a particular arrangement of these curves will design on the ice a figure closely resembling an an cient or Indian bow. Thus, we will say, a curve of two yards on the outside of right, a small curve of one foot in length struck on the cross outside of left, and another, two yards on right, will show it. CHAPTER VIII. THE COMBINATION OF THE INSIDE AND OUTSIDE, OR VICE VERSA, FORWARDS OR BACKWARDS ON ONE FOOT, CALLED ALSO THE SERPENTINE LINE. THIS brings us to some very fine movements in figure-skating, which, until the last fifteen years, have been unaccountably neglected, and, when practised at all, not half developed. To the majority of skaters their beauties are unknown. Perhaps we ought not to have said "unaccountably neglected," because the reason is plain, viz. the contempt and disuse of the inside edge, which participates in their composition in an equal degree with the outside. Of the vast field of novel practice that arises from an accurate knowledge of the serpentine line, when combined with the single and double turns, we have treated in Chapters X. and XI. At this stage of the learner's career, we require the knowledge of it to give us the power of controlling the skating, which naturally produces that great desideratum-steadiness of balance. This steadiness of balance is indispensable in the acquisition of that correctness which is required in the simple figures that follow, and still more so in the combined figures. The study of the serpentine line will enable the learner to alter the size of any curve by making it either smaller or larger, or to convert it into a straight line, and again into the opposite curve to that with which he started, &c., proceeding all the time on one foot, and in an attitude fixed, save that the body tilts or leans over from side to side. Now, from the very nature of such a wonderful performance being possible, it contains the very essence of the art of balancing the body, in all the various gradations from inside to outside, or outside to inside, in large or small curves, circles, and even in unwinding, as it were, spirals, and thereby forming a loop, which latter will be afterwards separately described. The velocity, whatever it may have been at the commencement of the serpentine, must always be gradually diminishing from the operation of friction both of the ice and air. At the first glance at the subject, we might almost be justified in assuming that, if a skater were equally proficient in inside and outside, he ought to be able readily to unite the two. Such a theory is found to be worth little, however, for it requires very great additional practice to master the combination of such movements on one leg, without help from the other. No amount of written instruction can avail, beyond informing the skater what is to be done and how to set about it, and reminding him of the following few facts closely connected with it. First of all, then, velocity may be carried to such a pitch in skating, that, if we wanted to describe a small circle, we should not be able to lean over sufficiently to counteract the centrifugal force, from the simple fact that the skate-iron would no longer bite the ice, but slip. Not so, however, with the larger circle, which can be fitted to any velocity. Secondly, velocity and the size of the circle, or curved line, determine the inclination of the body. Thus, supposing velocity to continue nearly the same, and we wish to alter a small curve to a larger one, &c., we must incline less and less, as the size increases; we shall then reach the perpendicular, and be on the flat of the iron, from which the transition to the curve opposed to that we started with will be marked by a reversed series of changes, leaning over more and more, and diminishing the size of the curve. The result of such a gradual blending will be the serpentine line. We can, of course, stop at any intermediate angle of inclination between the two possible extremes, and also repeat the changes several times, -that is, supposing we started with and keep up sufficient impetus to enable us to do so. ; The practice must be, at first, at high velocity, in order that the curves may be very large and deviating but little from the straight line, decreasing, |