SLEIGHING. 95 



frequently surrounded by so many objections, on 

 account of the weather, that they are forced, much 

 .against their will, to abandon each in their turn. 

 Except for the very cold winter months, coaching 

 is perhaps a pastime that can be indulged in with 

 more certainty than any other ; but cold, and con- 

 tinual rain may even render coaching anything but 

 pleasant. Of all the months in which to travel on 

 the road, the spring and autumn are decidedly the 

 best. There is one thing that strikes me as remark- 

 able, why, when the roads were closed against the 

 coaches, owing to heavy snow-storms, did they not take 

 them off their wheels and convert them into sleighs ? 

 This is done in Canada, Russia, and Germany, where 

 sleighs are in common use during the winter, also in 

 crossing the Alps, Pyrenees, and Rocky Mountains. 

 By converting a carriage into a sleigh when there is 

 deep snow on the ground, a perfectly useless machine, 

 and one to which progress is impossible, becomes 

 endowed with entirely nev/ characteristics, since it 

 can pass in safety and with expedition where the 

 wheeled vehicle finds progress impossible. Had this 

 been done, coaches would never have had to be 

 abandoned as described, neither would there have 

 been any delay in their arriving at their destination. 

 Considering the amount of traffic there was on the 

 roads in those days, the snow covering the road would 

 never have become soft enough to be unfit for sleigh- 

 ing. A drift occasioned suddenly by a high wind 

 never extends far, and with the assistance of labourers 

 can easily be removed sufficiently to allow of the 

 passage of a coach, I admit that upon a road where 

 there is no considerable traffic, the snow may lie 

 so lightly as to be unfit for sleighing. At the present 



