THE GAME. The erosse is a light stick 5 or feet long, crooked at the end so as to allow a loose network of eat-gut or deerskin to be stretched aeross—not so tightly as in a tennis racquet, nor so loosely as to form a bag. The ball, inches in diameter, is now made of india-rubber. The fundamental principle of the game is to drive the ball through the opponent's goal, while defending one's own goal from a similar attack. There are usually twelve players on each side, and the ball is put in play by being placed on the exact centre of the field, after which the two centres stoop down and place the hacks of their crosses on either side of the ball, and at the word 'play' the crosses are drawn in toward the holders of them. The hall conies to one or the other. The players of the opposing teams at once begin a struggle for the mastery of the bail. \\lien scooped up from the ground it is carried horizontally on the erosse, the player running toward one of the goals and endeavoring to elude his antagonists, being helped on by his own team. If it seems prudent, he pitches the ball off his erosse toward a colleague who may be in a better position to convey it toward the goal. The ball is not
touched by the hand. The player with the hall, skillfully dodging his opponents, may succeed in shooting it between the goal-posts. thus scoring a goal; or the ball thus thrown may be inter cepted and returned by the goalkeeper, when de play continues as before. The game is divided into two halves of half an hour, but the teams change sides after each goal is made, the ball being again put in play in the centre of the field. The side scoring the most goals during the game is the winner. Lacrosse is essentially a game of combination. Individual or 'star' play is usually fatal to success, and among the hest clubs a selfish player is regarded as preferable only to a blind one. Consult: Beers, Lacrosse, Hie National Game of Canada (New York, 1860) ; Lacrosse, in Spaulding's "Library of Sports" (New York) ; Sachs, Lacrosse for Be ginners (London); Melland, Hints on Lacrosse (Manchester, England).