10 
FOREST AND STREAM 
January, 1922 
WALKING ON WEBBED FEET 
LEARNING HOW TO USE SNOWSHOES IS SIMPLY THE PROCESS 
OF GETTING ACCUSTOMED TO A LARGER PAIR OF FEET 
E xtra big feet are needed to hold 
you up when the snow is knee 
deep or more. Human feet are 
not built right for deep snow navi- 
gation. They are altogether too small 
and dainty. Snowshoes are extra big 
feet. They are distinctly more than 
mere pedal appendages. They are, for 
the time being, almost a part of your 
flesh and bones. Learning how to walk 
on snowshoes is simply the process of 
becoming accustomed to the vagaries of 
a new pair of feet. This does not take 
long, for you already know how to walk. 
Proper selection in 
buying a pair of snow- 
shoes is very important. 
Unless you get a pair 
which are of the best 
quality obtainable and 
of size and model best 
adapted to your own 
weight and particular 
use, you may have a 
laborious, perhaps ago- 
nizing winter tramp. 
Fragile, poorly-made 
snowshoes are subject 
to distressing ailments — the frame often 
breaks and the webbing sags. When 
you walk under either or both of these 
handicaps, each step is like lifting a ton 
weight. Presently, the tendons of your 
legs give out and there ensues an agony 
of piercing needles. 
The best made snowshoe breaks at 
times but as a rule it can be readily 
mended. \\’hen a poorly made snowshoe 
goes back on you, however, the collapse 
is 1 i kel y to be 
almost as com- 
plete as that of 
Oliver Wendell 
Holmes’ wonder- 
ful one-horse 
shay. The whole 
structure goes, 
and when this 
happens you are 
in a serious fix. 
Only after you 
have walked on 
snowshoes will you realize the numerous 
severe strains which these webbed feet 
go through. In addition to the constant 
weight of your body, there are many 
wrenches from half-buried stumps, sub- 
merged brush and fallen trees. The 
wood from which the framework is fash- 
ioned must be of a variety that will 
stand these wrenches. It must be fairly 
light and flexible yet at the same time 
tough and capable of holding its shape. 
White ash is generally conceded to be 
the best wood for the purpose. The 
wood should be straight grained through- 
out. Any suggestion of cross-grain is 
to be avoided. 
The parallel wood cross bars, one in 
front of the toes and the other behind 
the heel of the boot should be carefully 
By ElON JESSUP 
mortised into the frame. A slovenly job 
of mortising means that these bars will 
work loose under strain. At the point 
of contact where the two long ends of 
the frame meet to form the tail, these 
should be riveted together and held with 
copper burrs. Sometimes screws are 
used instead of rivets but screws are 
liable to break. 
The stringing, more generally known 
as the “filling,” must be of a sort that 
will neither sag nor stretch. In the 
average well-made snowshoe, the filling 
at the extreme front and rear consists of 
fairly light weight strands of lamb’s hide. 
The filling in the center of the snowshoe 
upon which the foot rests must be of 
very much heavier material. At one 
time, caribou hide was used extensively 
for this purpose but in practically all 
snowshoes made today the material is 
cowhide. Properly treated cowhide is 
just as good. Some manufacturers have 
two grades of filling but it is always wise 
to get the best. 
The lighter filling, in front of the toe 
and behind the heel, passes through 
small holes bored in the frame much after 
the manner of a tennis racket stringing. 
But the strands of the heavier filling in 
the center should loop completely around 
the outer sides of the frame. It might 
be well to add in this connection that the 
frail, light filling found in many Indian 
snowshoes is more decorative than use- 
ful. The white man, as a rule, can build 
a more serviceable pair of webbed feet 
than can the Redskin. 
CNOWSHOES may be divided into 
^ two general types. The most com- 
monly used of these is the ordinary tailed 
shoe with which everyone is familiar. 
There are numerous variations of this 
type. In Alaska, there is a snowshoe of 
this sort used which is eleven feet long. 
On the mainland of the United States 
you never find a shoe which is more than 
five feet long and very few of these. 
A five-foot snowshoe is fine for speed 
or racing over long, open stretches of 
dry snow such as are found in the prairie 
country of the Northwest, but it is in 
no way suitable for the mountains of the 
West or the mountains and rolling coun- 
try of the East. It is designed for 
straight ahead work in a level, open 
country. Eor general all around use, a 
snowshoe which is 
wider and at least a 
foot shorter is far bet- 
ter. There are vari- 
ous patterns of these 
shorter snowshoes of 
the tailed type, the fa- 
vorite in the East be- 
ing one known as the 
Algonquin. This is 
made in various sizes 
ranging up to fifty 
inches in length and 
from twelve to four- 
teen inches in width. Other good pat- 
terns have much the same general lines 
as the Algonquin. 
The right size in a snowshoe depends 
largely upon your weight. An especially 
big man needs an extra large and strong 
pair of snowshoes while a lighter per- 
son can get along better on a smaller 
pair. There are no standard sizes in 
snowshoes as there are in ordinary shoes. 
Each manufacturer has his own sizes 
and these, as a 
rule, differ from 
the other fellow’s. 
For this reason 
any figures I give 
in this connection 
must be accepted 
only in a relative 
sense and are not 
to be taken as 
accurate for all 
snowshoes. 
The boy’s size 
snowshoe, as a rule, averages thirty- 
five inches long and eleven inches wide. 
This is suitable for persons weigh- 
ing up to one hundred and twenty- 
five pounds. Small children can wear 
this size but smaller ones are better. A 
person weighing between one hundred 
and twenty-five and one hundred and 
seventy pounds requires a pair at least 
forty-two inches long and at least twelve 
inches wide. For persons between one 
hundred and eighty and two hundred and 
twenty pounds, a shoe forty-eight inches 
long and fourteen inches wide is needed. 
The right sort of tailed snowshoe is 
unevenly balanced. Bear this point in 
mind when you buy a pair. The greater 
part of the weight should be toward the 
rear so that while walking the tail drags 
A good all-around model of the tailed type 
