188 SPORT. 



warnings, I rush forwards, like Gladstone's trade 

 prosperity, with " leaps and bounds." For a time, 

 like him, I succeed admirably, and am a lon'g way 

 ahead of my dull-sailing consorts, when suddenly I 

 come upon one of the dangers against which the 

 " old man " had so often warned me a place where 

 only a thin covering of snow concealed a surface of 

 hard smooth ice the frozen overflow of some 

 hidden spring or water-course. In an instant my 

 feet fly from under me, and, falling heavily on my 

 left side, I hear a cry of alarm from my two com- 

 panions as I begin to slide down the slope. I 

 know what that means, and also what to do. I 

 turn on my back, and dig my elbows and heels 

 into the snow, but it is too hard just here for such 

 a drag or break to act sufficiently ; and, gradually 

 at first, but with fast increasing velocity as soon as 

 the first frantic efforts to stop myself have failed, I 

 plunge downwards till all steerage power is gone, 

 almost all breath is gone all will is gone and I 

 am a mere fortuitous atom shooting over the 



