OLNTACLLE

RALILS AND POSTS

Perhaps the first obstacle 15 a hurdles; or rather of strong rails and posts, five or six deep, one beyond another, and very short distances apart. You may ecither scramble over these or crawl under. If vou scramble over, you bark your shins grievously, fall between the rails, alighting on the most painful corners, and find difficulty i chimbing out. On the other hand, 1if you crawl under-

row of

RACLS. 451 neath, vou only break the falls of all those who are scrambling above and falling through; also your own head, amongst the posts. It 15 considered proper to alight upon your feet on springing from the last rail, but the spectators prefer you to use the other end, a plan very frequently carried out.

After this the competitors, with such advantages as the scramble has severally given them, and such bumps and scrapes as they have themselves collected, take another run on the flat. At the end of this an immense net 1s pegged to the cround on all sides but the nearcst. This net lies thick in many folds, and, in

some sceret place, cither between

two of the pegs orin the net itsclf]

there 1s a hole big cenough for a

& \:\;\;‘,‘.’ L an to get through. | The first

NS man arriving here throws himself

down and crawls under the un-

pegged end of the net, followed

by the others as fast as they may,

until that great net contains a

piled-up crowd of wriggling

humanity, cach man making his

best cffort to find the exit, and getting in the way of all the others.

You never can tell when the first man will agct out. He may find the hole at once or he may be almost any length of time; in fact, very often 1t 1s found that some frantic competitor 1s unconsciously standing on that part of the net. Sometimes, if the net is very large, the artful man does this purposely,

PN S

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33 RN é?)‘? AN ST

THE NET,