THE ROLLING-MOTION SHOE. 29 



seat of the skeleton sleigh an " anxious-seat " for the reinsman. A 

 sulky had to be substituted, in order to obtain a higher seat, to avoid 

 the peppering, and a stream of glittering particles would follow the 

 wheels. The cause of this is apparent. With the calkin on the toe, 

 it lengthened the point over which the foot had to roll, and jjlacing 

 the fulcrum farther back, gained a shorter and conseqiiently a faster 

 stroke. In that part of Iowa wex"e many Geimans, and one of them 

 had acqui]-ed a Avide reputation for the wooden shoes he fabricated. 

 They were much easier to walk in than those made after the usual 

 pattern, and the whole secret was his placing a bar across the bottom 

 of the shoe, below the ball of the foot. It was analogous to the set- 

 back calkins of the rolling-motion shoe. The rigid material did not 

 permit the bending of the foot in the manner the leather sole does, 

 and in lieu of placing the fulcrum at the extreme point, it was back 

 some three inches, requiring much less foi'ce to raise the heel. The 

 Chinese shoe is a further exemplification of the principle that an un- 

 yielding sole is made easier for the wearer to travel upon wlien the 

 toe is beveled like the tip. 



I found that a tip made after the plan shown in the cut, but rest- 

 ing on the sole, made the horee cripple after it had been worn for a 

 time : and one in which the metal was cut away had the drawback 

 of permitting the wet clay to become impacted between it and the 

 sole, so as to produce the same difficulty. Figure 3 represents the 

 foot surface, the outer rim half an inch wide, and raised above the 

 portion which covers the sole an eighth of an inch. In this depres- 

 sion is fitted a piece of the best India-rubber, a little thicker than 

 the depression, and when the tip is nailed on it keeps its place per- 

 fectly, preventing the gathering of. dirt " between the sole and the 

 metal," and also giving an elastic material which does not injure the 

 sole with an injurious pressure. The toe of the gi-ound sui-face, 

 being beveled, has another advantage, as it is not so likely to wound 

 the coronet, or the lower pai-t of tiie ankle ; neither is it so apt to 

 strike the horn of the hind foot. Closely watch tlie action of the 

 fast trotter — the best place to see, when seated in a skeleton wagon — 

 and you will observe that while the fore foot is raised from the 

 ground, the hind foot on the same side is thrust under it, some horses 



