muscles which determine the force of projection that enables the body to spring up from the ground, and perform the desired movement, overcoming the resistance of the weight of the body. The "Encyclopædia" of Diderot and D'Alembert says, "That in order to calculate the force of all the muscles brought into play when a man resting upon his feet leaps up to the height of two feet or so, we ought to remember that he weighs 150 lbs., and that the forces necessary to raise the body to the height mentioned act with 2,000 times greater force, or with a force equivalent to 300,000 lbs.

But it is especially among animals that the study of the mechanism on which leaping depends is most interesting. The greater the length of the hind legs, the longer will be the leaps which the body is able to execute. It is thus that we are able to explain the prodigious and rapid jumps of the squirrel, the hare, and above all the jerboa. This last quadruped, whose hind extremities are very long, does not walk upon four feet, but carries on locomotion by jumping upon two. Nothing is more curious than to see him when he is suddenly surprised by the hunter in the midst of tall corn, over the ears of which he leaps, appearing and disappearing like a will-o'-the-wisp, the most accomplished pursuer experiencing great difficulty in catching him. In extremity he can get over ten feet at a single bound; and in his ordinary movements he traverses at least three or four feet at a leap. No animal is in this respect so highly gifted as the frog; and certain serpents also throw themselves forward to great distances. It is by an analogous movement that fishes, as the trout, salmon, &c., swimming in streams broken up by cataracts, are able to surmount all the obstacles they meet in ascending them.

The whale jumps from fifteen to twenty feet out of the sea,

"after having," says Barthez, "struck the water with its tail so suddenly and so swiftly that it, seeming to be for the instant fixed, gives a support like a spring-board to the bound of this enormous animal. Nothing, however, among the larger species is equal to the wonderful power of insects, in which the muscles attain their maximum of force, verifying the saying of Pliny, that "Nature is greatest in little things." The grasshopper, for example, jumps two hundred times higher than the length of its body. Schwammerdam (1637-1680) remarks, in connection with this fact, that the legs of this insect are like high pillars between which the suspended body is at first balanced before being projected with all the more force by the action of the extensor muscles. And that other insect, which the Arabs call the father of leaping, is there anything more astonishing than the action of its muscles? The flea-if we must mention the lively insect-clears with a single leap a distance one hundred times the length of its own body, and can drag a weight twenty-four times as heavy as itself.

Man is not thus favoured, but there are some who appear to have received in certain measure the gift from bounteous nature. Among these was Phayllus, of Croton, who, if we are to believe history, could jump a distance of from fifty-four to fifty-six feet. The exercise was practised at the Olympic games, and formed part of the course of the Pentathlon.

The athletes who competed for this prize were naked, and used unguents more than all others. We may surmise, in spite of the silence of the ancient authors on the subject, that suppleness was a condition indispensable in this, kind of exercise. The only things with which they burdened themselves were certain lumps of lead called halteres, which

they carried one in each hand. These varied in form with the times; for, while upon the remains of ancient vases and sculptured stones they appear pierced with an opening sufficiently large to allow of the hand passing through, in other cases they are furnished with a species of handle. However the form might change, their use was always the same, to give to the leaper more elasticity and strength, and to balance. him in coming down on the ground. They were also beneficial in developing the strength of the arms and shoulders. Other athletes besides leapers-pugilists, for example-did not neglect to employ them, and many used them merely for healthy exercise. In the palæstra they were employed in all sorts of bodily exercises, but especially for leaping, of which there were several kinds, high leaps, long leaps, and leaps from a height downward. The athletes also practised jumping through hoops and (From a vase in the Hamilton over cords and naked swords. One

variety of this exercise was the

Halteres used in Jumping.

collection.)

"game of the leathern bottle," which consisted of leaping either with the two feet or with only one upon a leather bottle or bladder inflated with air or filled with wine and covered with a coating of oil or grease. The difficulty in this case was not in making the leap, but in maintaining the footing upon the slippery surface of the bag.

This department of athletics was not held in high estimation, and consequently was not practised until the

more important competitions had taken place in running, wrestling, and pugilism. Homer makes no mention of it among the games of the Greeks under the walls of Troy, but it was in force among the Phocians, a frivolous race, fond of good living, dancing, and dress.

The most agile runners were always the best jumpers.

Thus Phayllus of Croton, who made the wonderful leap referred to above, was an indefatigable runner, and the Basques, who were also remarkable for swiftness in running, vaulted splendidly, either with or without the aid of poles. "He runs and leaps marvellously," was a frequent expression in ancient France in speaking of the Basque lackeys. The Spaniards are the cousins of the Basques, and partake of their tastes and capabilities; and Colonel Amoros, a great judge in these matters, puts the English in the same. category. "An Englishman," said he, in his "Manual of

Physical Education" (Paris, 1830), "leapt the ditch of the garden of Mousseau, which is thirty feet wide, and we find

Leaping with Halteres.
(From a carving-Caylus.)

Leaping over Javelins.
(From a carving-Caylus )

among this people as good long leapers as among the Spaniards. The best of my pupils did sixteen feet and at

:

High Leap. (From a painted vase in the Hamilton collection.

Madrid a young lad of thirteen years leapt eighteen feet." In the seventeenth century lived a clever Englishman,

J