COASTING ON PONKAPOAG 313 



against the velvet sky behind, to George B.'s 

 blacksmith shop, at least. Certain flyers were 

 fabled to go farther and, on perfect sledding, to 

 make the gentle declivity clear to Potash Meadow 

 and brook. Such as did this were famous the 

 region through. 



It is probable that the coasting on Ponkapoag 

 Hill began with the coming of white settlers to 

 the region, "the Dorchester Back Woods." The 

 Indian invented the toboggan, but he seems to 

 have used it for a sled of burden and not as a 

 pleasure chariot. Coasting is essentially a white 

 man's joy. No white man could have a tobog- 

 gan at the top of a snow-clad hill and not im- 

 mediately use it to coast down on. It is in the 

 blood. Tradition has it that the legions of Caesar 

 came over the Alps, and finding the snowy slopes 

 in front of them, immediately sat down on their 

 shields and slid down upon the Northern races 

 they had come to conquer. Many a New Eng- 

 land youngster in days gone-by learned to come 

 down a hill on a barrel stave in much the same 

 way; he, too, with blood of the conqueror in his 

 veins. The toboggan wasn't really invented; it 

 grew. From that invention has worked out 

 many devices specially fitted to the sport under 



