THE ANATOMY OF SPEED SKATING. 



181 



leagues on ice while his friend went one and a half on the best 

 horse. 



It has had among its devotees no less a man than Goethe, the 

 great German poet, who sought by this means to drive away his 

 persistent sleeplessness and bring back his youthful vigor. One 

 clear, cold morning in December he is said to have jumped from 

 his bed, strapped on his skates, and to have sallied out, reciting 

 the following like one inspired : " Penetrated with the gayety that 





FIG. 1. J. K. MoCuLLooH IN SKATING POSITION. 



gives the feeling of health, I go to scour afar the glistening crys- 

 tal. . . . How brilliant is the ice that night has spread on the 

 waters ! " 



It is also said of him that when he and Klopstock the poet met 

 for the first time one in his prime and the other in the decline 

 of life the subject of conversation was not poetry, literature, or 

 aesthetics, as we would suppose, but was entirely devoted to 

 skating. 



