The Outing Club
The Outing Club
WHEELMENwill read with interest the following quotation from Sir Frederick Bramwell’s address to the British Association at Bath, England:
“Consider the bicycles and tricycles of to-day—machines which afford the means of healthful exercise to thousands, and which will, probably within a very short time, prove of the very greatest possible use for military purposes. The perfection to which these machines have been brought is almost entirely due to strict attention to detail; in the selection of the material of which the machines are made; in the application of pure science (in its strictest sense) to the form and to the proportioning of these parts, and also in the arrangement of these various parts in relation the one to the other. The result is that the greatest possible strength is afforded with only the least possible weight, and that friction in working has been reduced to a minimum. All of us who remember the hobby-horse of former years, and who contrast that machine with the bicycle and tricycle of the present day, realize how thoroughly satisfactory is the result of this attention to detail—this appreciation of the ‘next to nothing.’â€
WEare pleased to hear from Hong Kong that the American yachtCoronet—the winner of the yacht race across the Atlantic last spring—arrived safely at Yokohama, Japan, en route round the world. We next expect to hear from theCoronetat Singapore, then at Bombay, from which latter port the yacht will proceed to England, via the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea.
THECopenhagenJagttidenterecently contained the following curious account of a fight between a viper and a hedgehog, as related by Dr. Bilandt, a Danish naturalist:
“One hot day, about noon, on the Billeslund estate, I espied a hedgehog in a meadow with its eyes fixed intently on some spot in a hedge close by, and, by following its gaze, I saw a viper lying on the bank curled up, sunning itself. I sat down on the grass to watch them. For quite an hour the two combatants remained immovable, the hedgehog keeping a steady eye upon his prey. Then suddenly the viper began to move exactly in the direction of his foe. The hedgehog let it nearly pass, when, swift as lightning, it darted forwards, and, having seized the viper by the tip of its tail with its teeth, rolled himself up. The viper writhed under the bite, and dashed its body repeatedly against the quills of the hedgehog till blood flowed, and in a short space of time it had practically committed suicide. The hedgehog then devoured its prey, from the tail upward, carrying away what he could not consume.â€
ANincident in rifle-shooting this season was the feat accomplished by the well-known rifle-shot, Dr. F. W. Carver, who, in October, at the Pittsburgh Exposition Park, surpassed all previous efforts in rifle-shooting. Dr. Carver had made a bet of $100 with Adam Forepaugh, Jr., that he would break six glass balls thrown into the air simultaneously before they fell to the ground. The shooting was done with a Spencer repeating rifle in the presence of a few invited guests. Dr. Carver had not the slightest trouble in performing the feat, repeating it four times in succession. The doctor was not satisfied with this, but threw up seven balls at once, all of which he perforated before they fell to the ground. The cartridges used in these rifle-shooting exhibitions, however, are not simply made of powder and balls. They are prepared with shot in the place of bullets. Even with shot the feat is remarkable; with bullets it would be an impossibility.
WITHa flourish of trumpets, the advent of the road-sculler was heralded into public notice. How far the machine will attain the great popularity which its sponsors expect for it remains to be seen. No one will attempt to deny that it has real merits; whether, however, the machine has attained anything like its highest point of perfection seems uncertain. During the contest between all the noted scullers of the world at Madison Square Garden, there was undoubtedly far too high an average of breakages, which, indeed, seriously interfered with the interest of the show. But the average mortal is not such a creature of thews and sinews as the grand specimens of humanity who entered into that competition. Moreover, the ordinary use of the machine will not be for racing purposes, but simply as a means of pleasure and locomotion, and, therefore, the frailer parts of the mechanism will not be put to such undue strain. The question also arises whether the exercise is identical with sculling a boat, and the answer to this appears decidedly to be that it only comprises a portion of the muscular action necessary in sculling proper. At least two motions are absent, viz., the act of feathering, and dropping the hands at the end of the stroke. The action is a straight pull and a straight return. The natural inclination on the part of an expert oarsman to drop his hands was plainly observable, and possibly may have accounted for some of the accidents which happened to the steel ropes. The general conclusion will, however, be that the essential element which has gained rowing such a prominent place among athletic sports—the exercising of every muscle in the body, both arms and legs—is far from being lost, and this is a point which is lacking in both bicycle and tricycle.