314 OLD PLYMOUTH TRAILS 



special conditions. Switzerland has seen coast- 

 ing come up from the utilitarian exuberance of 

 the Roman legions to a sport which is interna- 

 tional and which draws coasting experts from all 

 over the world. They call it tobogganing, which, 

 of course, it is not and in modern days at least 

 never was, for it is all done on a sled with run- 

 ners. "Schlittli" the Swiss call it, and though it 

 seems a far cry it may be that our word sled has 

 been developed from it. At least both begin with 

 S. 



Elaborate books have been written about ^'to- 

 bogganing'' as it has developed at Davos and St. 

 Moritz, in the Alps. The Swiss Schlittli seems 

 to be much like what the Yankee boys call a "girl's 

 sled,'' a board seat set high on skeleton runners, 

 that I fancy were at first of the plain wood but 

 later came to be shod with flat iron. On this 

 the coaster sits and goes down the hill sedately, 

 feet foremost. Thus the early Swiss toboggan- 

 ing was done, the rider steering by putting out a 

 foot to the right or left, after the fashion of the 

 small girl today on her similar sled. Such coast- 

 ing is done by careful elderly people in St. Moritz 

 or Davos today, only they use wooden pegs held 



