316 OLD PLYMOUTH TRAILS 



the rider, putting his weight aft is able to turn 

 more rapidly without the sled losing its grip on 

 the ice beneath. On these the Swiss coasters 

 negotiate S curves at surprising speed, and are 

 estimated to .reach sixty or even seventy miles 

 an hour on the straight stretches of the world- 

 famous course. As might be supposed by any 

 one who coasts, this speed is not made with the 

 rider sitting on his sled girl fashion. Long ago 

 the American visitors taught the St. Moritz coast- 

 ers that the way to ride a clipper sled on a swift 

 coast was to go "belly-bump/' prone on one's 

 belly, with a foot ready to steer at the right or 

 left as the case might be. The stability is surer 

 because the centre of gravity is lower, the wind 

 resistance is less, and the method is safer and 

 better, if it is not so dignified. The records 

 made thus converted the most phlegmatic Eng- 

 lishmen at St. Moritz, and since then this has 

 been the approved fashion. 



But we have gone coasting a long way from 

 Ponkapoag Hill. There, long before the Swiss 

 course was thought of the evolution in sleds was 

 going on, and though Ponkapoag did not evolve 

 the steel-frame skeleton coaster it got up some 

 tasty rigs of its own. Similar things were 



