TOBOGGANING

ON CROOKED RUNS

BY THE

HON. HARRY GIBSON

WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BY

F. DE B. STRICKLAND AND LADY-TOBOGGANER'

ILLUSTRATED

LONDON

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.

AND NEW YORK: 15 EAST 16th STREET

PREFACE

MOST of us have our hobbies.

For some time

the toboggan and how to use it has been mine. I am afraid that, like other horses, my hobby is not altogether free from vice. In the past he has occasionally been guilty of boring. This time he seems to have taken the bit between his teeth and fairly bolted, and I must ride him good a finish as I may.

to as

Tobogganing on crooked runs is a sport which is steadily increasing in popularity year by year; but it is a sport without a literature. With the exception of the past numbers of

the

6

most

Alpine Post,' which are not accessible to

ganers

people, there is no place to which tobog

can turn for information about their

vi

favourite sport. This book is an attempt to supply the deficiency; to show how the sport has gradually developed into its present form, and to give an answer to the many questions about runs, toboggans, and methods of riding which new-comers are constrained to ask each year.

I take this opportunity of thanking most heartily the many tobogganers who have assisted me in my work with contributions, information, or criticism; and I would particularly mention Messrs. Bulpett and Freeman. Without the information given me by these gentlemen, much of the early history of the sport must have been omitted. To Mr. Strickland I am also under the greatest obligations. He has placed the pages of the Alpine Post' unreservedly at my disposal, both for information and for illustrations; and he has also assisted me with a chapter on the tobogganing of the last two years. For the chapter