224 
FRANK FORESTER’S FIELD SPORTS. 
Tt is no easy matter to walk on snow-shoes in the first in¬ 
stance, and a good many tumbles are inevitable to a learner; 
but snow is a soft substratum whereupon to fall, and the choking 
up of gun-barrels, and the wetting of ammunition, is the worst 
evil to be apprehended. Before putting on the snow-shoes, a 
couple of pair of woollen socks should be indued, then a flannel 
slipper, and above that a regular Indian mocassin, the combined 
thickness of which will generally save the foot from being 
galled by the thongs of the shoe ; though neither this, nor any 
other device, can ward off the much dreaded mal a raquette , or 
painful swelling of the ankle-joint, in consequence of the tension 
of the sinews, by the weight and drag of the large frame, when 
clogged with frozen snow, during a severe tramp. 
For this practice is the only sure preventive; though I have 
no doubt the pain and duration of the ailment could be much 
mitigated and diminished by the use of that most excellent 
remedy for all strains, flows, bruises, rheumatic affections, or the 
like, well known as Bertine’s Liniament. I am never now 
without this invaluable lotion, which I have come to regard as 
an indispensable accompaniment to a sportsman’s outfit, and 
which I strenuously recommend to all my readers, as sure to 
relieve them from much present pain, and likely to spare them 
a large doctor’s bill in the prospective. 
But to resume,—with the feet thus fortified, and a good pair 
of stout light snow-shoes, a good walker will find himself, after 
a little practice, able to travel both rapidly and pleasantly over 
the stainless snow of those hyperborean wilds, and to run down 
the great Stags of the North in their own frozen haunts. 
No directions, nor aught but experience and practice, can 
teach the tyro this method of progression, but it is well to ob¬ 
serve that the principal knack to be acquired, is to throw the 
feet widely apart, so as to avoid kicking your own shins with 
the edges of the broad snow-shoe; to clear above a yard at each 
stride, so as to avoid treading with the heel of one shoe on the 
toe of the other, which is sure to bring you on your nose ; and 
to give a circular swing to the leg, which shall plant your foot 
on the ground somewhat in-toed, after the Indian fashion 
