430 



CURLING. 



various modes are adopted to give a secure foot- 

 ing, but the best is a plate of iron about 3^ or four 

 feet long and nine or ten inches broad, punched or 

 frosted on both sides, so that it not only yields 

 secure footing to the player, but cannot move from 

 its position; and moreover if it be properly placed 

 at first, none of the players can stand in an impro- 

 per position. The first player now delivers his 

 stone by lifting it, and by a swing of his arm sliding 

 it along the ice towards the farther tee: his object is 

 merely to cross the score farthest off; if it goes 

 farther, and approach the tee too closely, the oppo- 

 site party's first stone may be immediately made to 

 strike it to a great distance, and the stone be thus 

 in a measure lost ; on the other band, if it does not 

 cross the score, it is termed a hog, or collier, and 

 is removed off the ice ; and other players have to 

 follow him on the same side till the ice be filled, 

 that is, until the first party have one stone across 

 the score, after which the adverse party plays. 

 The evil of the first player's stone being a hog, or 

 collier, is apparent at the conclusion of the end,* 

 for then the opposite party has two or more stories 

 to deliver consecutively, and may thus play any 

 game they choose without fear of its being spoiled 

 by the other side. After a stone has passed the 

 score, the only penalty attached to a collier or hog, 

 is to be removed off the ice. The ice being filled, 

 the first of the second party plays ; his duty is not 

 to touch the opposite party's stone unless it be 

 very near the tee, but to pass by its side and draw, 

 that is, to take up an advantageous position near 

 the tee. The first skipper's directions must now 

 be given with care, and he will have to consider 

 whether it be preferable to strike up the first stone 

 nearer the tee arid lie guard to it, or to strike out 

 the opposite party's, which we shall suppose already 

 near the tee, or to draw on the other side: the di- 

 rections must depend on the exact positions of the 

 stones, and of the known good or bad play of the 

 person whose turn it is. The general object of the 

 game is to place as many stones of the same party 

 as near the tee as possible, and to drive out or ex- 

 clude those of the other ; but whether this be done 

 before or only towards the conclusion of the end, 

 will depend on the plan of game followed. After 

 all the stones have been played, those of the one 

 party which are nearer than the nearest one of the 

 other, count each stone one, and thus concludes 

 the first end. The party which gains that end 

 now fills the ice for the next end, and so on, each 

 party adding together all their winnings until they 

 amount to seven, thirteen, twenty-one, or thirty- 

 one, as happens to be agreed on before playing, to 

 constitute game: sometimes, instead of any parti- 

 cular number as game, the parties play for a certain 

 number of hours, the greatest winners being vic- 

 tors. 



" The director or skipper is permitted to order 

 each of his own side what to do, or to attempt to 

 do, and the player must do his utmost to obey the 

 directions. Like the general of an army, the di- 

 rector must be master of the scientific as well as 

 the practical part of the game : he must occasionally 

 lay stratagems, or discover and try to obviate those 

 laid by the other director. He must be cool, un- 

 derstand the temper of his troops, consult the 

 biases in the ice, the effect of the wind, the excel- 

 Jence of the stone to be delivered, and whether 

 sweeping be necessary ; and he must especially 



The end is the term used for all the players having played 

 from one and to th other. 



study the qualifications of the players; for if un in- 

 different player be ordered to take a difficult shot, 

 he may miss it, and do at the same time much in- 

 jury to his own party, so that it would have been 

 better had he not made the attempt. He must 

 have also disposed the players judiciously: thus 

 the leader, or first of a side, ought to be a sure 

 player who will lay his stone in the proper place, 

 and above all, not be a collier : the second ought 

 also to be good, in case by some accident (for acci- 

 dents will occur) the first player has not crossed 

 the score ; for if the second stone were also a col- 

 lier, the end must be lost by several shots, unless 

 the opponents are wretched players. Again, the 

 two last players ought to be first-rate, to drive out 

 the opposite winners or to break up the guards, und 

 for this purpose they ought to have strength and 

 weight of stone, as well as certainty of aim ; for 

 when the game is crowded, a stroke on a wrong 

 stone may present the other party with several 

 points. The worst players ought to be placed in 

 the middle. 



Every player, we have said, is obliged to have a 

 broom in his hand. Previous to the director's 

 orders to play being given, either party may sweep 

 the whole rink clean: when a stone has been played, 

 its own side may sweep the ice before it, between 

 the farther score and tee ; after it has passed the 

 tee, his adversaries may ply their brooms. Much 

 may be done by judicious sweeping; a stone may 

 thus, although it would otherwise settle immedi- 

 ately beyond the score, be made to glide up to near 

 the tee ; and on the other hand, if the ice be swept 

 too clearly before it, it may pass the tee, when the 

 other party's brooms coming into play may cause 

 it to glide on so far as to be lost. Although there- 

 fore *he director has the whole charge of the 

 sweeping department, still much depends on the 

 player's sweeping. 



There are various points in the game, such as 

 drawing, striking, posting (or passing through be- 

 tween two stones without touching them), but- 

 ting, guarding, wicking, &c. : inwicliing is when the 

 player has to make his stone strike at an angle on 

 the inner side of another so as to repel it farther 

 from the tee, and alter the course of his own to- 

 wards it ; outwicking is the reverse of this, and con- 

 sists in striking the outer side of a friend's stone so 

 as to project it near to the tee: wicking, or brittel- 

 ing, as it is also called, is unquestionably the 

 most beautiful part of the game, and requires most 

 science. 



To prevent disputes between parties, there are 

 a number of laws, but as the same have not re- 

 ceived the sanction of all curling clubs, some regu- 

 lations are generally agreed on before playing, par- 

 ticularly if it be a set game, called a spiel, when 

 between those of the same club or parish, and bon- 

 spiel when between different clubs or districts." 



CUVIER, BARON FREDERICK, an eminent natu- 

 ralist, brother of the illustrious Baron George Cu- 

 vier, of whom a memoir is given in the body of the 

 work, was born at Montbeliard, in 1773. He was 

 called to Paris by his brother, and became keeper 

 of the menagerie at the Jardin des Plantes in 1804, 

 a place which enabled him to make some valuable 

 observations on the economy and physiology of 

 animals. These are published in the Annales du 

 Museum, and, with other valuable works on na- 

 tural history, led to his election into the academy 

 of sciences, to the inspector-generalship of the uni- 

 versity, to the legion of honour, to the royal so- 



