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370
IV. EDUCATION AND MENTAL CULTURE IN SWEDEN.
the two figure-skating championships, inasmuch as that of Europe, as also that
of the World, have, at the international contests arranged by the International
Skating Society, been carried by Swedes. This society — embracing fourteen countries
— is conducted from Sweden, which provides the chairman and the secretary. In
speed skating, Sweden has also produced many good champions, who have secured
the first prizes at the international races abroad. Stockholms allmänna
skridskoklubb (ßkating club) was the one to take the lead in this department. Of låte
years, a very great number of skating clubs have arisen in Sweden, and in most
of the larger towns we find either natural or artificial skating rinks.
Skid-running — without doubt the grandest sport in existence — had lost
ground in Sweden in the sixties and seventies and was practically seldom seen
south of Dalelfven. In the northern districts, on the contrary, skid-running has
always been in the vanguard of sports as a useful method of swift locomotion,
and magnificent feats have occasionally been accomplished by the hardy inhabitants
of those regions. In consequence of the newly roused sporting interest
everywhere in the country, this so-called >sport of sports» has become famous wherever
there is snow. The rising generation now assiduously practises skid-running, which
has attained such popularity among old and young, men and women, that it bids
fair to put every other winter sport in the shade. Also here, the stir brought
about by racing has been productive of more general practice and a higher
development. Föreningen för skidlöpningens främjande i Sverige (the Society for
promotion of skid-running in Sweden) — a remarkably energetic society — has
brought this branch of sport to the front by arranging contests in different parts
of the country and by appointing instructors to teach the young. This society,
moreover, issues a valuable Annual. More than a hundred skid-running matches
take place every year, and as many as thirty clubs flourish in Sweden.
Skid-running — which has for its object locomotion everywhere, in woods
and fields, over ice and meadow, up and down slopes and fells — has two
characteristic features: distance or despatch running, and hill-skidding icith jumping.
In both, separate matches are arranged; sometimes in the two together. On hilly
ground more than twenty meters have been covered at one jump, and people speak
of a jump of even thirty meters down a considerable ledge.
Another winter sport affording great pleasure to its votaries and being a
peculiar sight to watch, is Skate-sailing. During the last decades, this has
likewise developed itself into a veritable sport with highly interesting races, at which
beating to windward and sailing with side-wind and leading wind are occurring.
On the fiords round Stockholm, when the ice is smooth, you can revel in the
sight of the beautiful picture presented by some thirty white sails chasing
each other with astounding velocity. At one occasion when the wind was high,
the speed was tested by the log to be 50 knots (93 kilometers an hour).
Ice-yachting is practised, though not so much, because the ice, as a rule,
is covered with snow; and in cases of thaw or winters without snow, it is more
convenient, more independent, and less expensive to go in for skate-sailing.
Sledge-kicking is a regular Swedish winter sport, which was originally a
practical means- of communication along the country roads; it is, however, now
so common amongst the young people of Norrland that the »Sparkstfltting>
(kick-sledge) forms part of the winter equipment. It is, as it were, the winter bicycle,
and on roads hard worn down, during sharp frost, or across ice when the snow
is not too deep, a good speed can be attained. Also in favour of this sport, clubs
have been organized and matches arranged.
Tobogganing has also been developed into a sport by the throwing up of
ice-hills, one of which is kept up by Föreningen för befrämjande af
skolungdomens fria lekar (the Society for the promotion of outdoor sports for the Young),
at Uumlegården in Stockholm, where, on school holidays, toboggans can be reckoned
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