SNOWSHOE, a framework loosely at tached to the shoe or moccasin for giving sup port to the wearer in walking over soft snow, much used by the Northern Indians, the Cana dians, Laplanders and other residents of coun tries where snow remains for long periods. It consists of a frame of bent wood, interlaced with a network of hide or sinews cut into strips. The portion where the ball of the foot would rest is more closely woven than the rest, and is strengthened by a piece of light, tough wood strapped across from side to side. The shape of the snowshoe is elliptical, being rounded in the front and drawn out to a long blunt neck at the back. Its size is usually three feet or more in length and a foot to a foot and a half in width. This large, flat surface fur nishes a larger plane of resistance to the soft snow and by distributing the weight of the wearer over a larger surface than the foot does, does not break the brittle crust on the top of snow, which makes progress without snow shoes impossible. In use, the wearer may well encase his feet in moccasins and further pro tect them by wrappings or many pairs of stock ings. This is necessary to prevent the foot from being chafed by the strap, into which the toe is passed. This strap is in the middle of the
snowshoe, over the strap of wood, near the front; the heel of the foot is not attached to the snowshoe at all. When the heel is raised in walking, the snowshoe is not lifted, but re mains flat on the ground, then, as the foot is lifted the toe elevates the forward part of the snowshoes and it is dragged along on the snow as the leg advances. Experts can walk on snow shoes with great rapidity, but there is a swing ing outward motion that must be acquired before the novice can hope to make the shoes serviceable. When there is a light crust on the snow snowshoes allow the hunter to overtake deer, moose and other hoofed animals, whose pointed feet piercing the crust sink through the snow and make rapid flight impossible. In Canada races on snowshoes have become a regular feature of the winter sports, and records show 100 yards covered in 10 seconds; one mile in from four and a quarter to five minutes; five miles in from 31 to 33 minutes. Snowshoes are frequently highly ornamented and among some of the Indians serve as love tokens. See Sm. Consult for records the re ports of The Montreal Snowshoe Club.'