About this time Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Dobson took up the game and we spent many hours practising on the slopes behind Davos Dorf.

The Richardson brothers, who had been to Norway, came to Davos about 1893 bringing with them knowledge of the sport and soon gathered round them a keen lot of disciples.  The Davos English Ski Club was formed and from now on Ski-ing spread rapidly throughout Switzerland.

In the meantime, Ski Clubs were also being formed in the Black Forest and other parts of Germany, as well as in Austria.

Doctor Nansen, in his book about Greenland, described the use of Skis for Arctic exploration and his accounts fired a great many more people to try the game.

I advise anyone who wishes to know more of the development of Ski running to read Doctor Hoek’s book “Der Schi,” published in 1922, as he gives a long account of the first forming of Clubs as well as the gradual adoption of Skis as a means to winter climbing, and, further, a useful list of the literature on the subject.

After the first beginnings in 1899, the Swiss became energetic and enthusiastic runners.  The children could be seen on barrel staves with a pair of old boots nailed to the centre into which they slipped their feet with their own boots on.  It was not a particularly graceful game in those days.  Runners armed themselves with poles some 8 feet long on which they leant heavily when running downhill.  This school soon gave way to the more modern school, which proved that the carrying of two sticks was better than one only.  A great many books on the technique of Ski-ing followed each other fast and furiously—­Zdarsky and Lilienfeld, Caulfeild and Lunn, Roget Hoeg and others all contributing to the controversy on technique.

Now there are innumerable Ski Clubs with their own year-books, and the sport is so well launched, not only in Europe, but also in Australia, New Zealand, East Africa and America and elsewhere, throughout the world, that there is but little chance of its ever again dying out.

The British Ski Clubs include the Ski Club of Great Britain, the British Ski Association, the Alpine Ski Club and the Ladies’ Ski Club.  These are federated in one Council and work harmoniously together for the furtherance of British Ski-ing.

This is a very incomplete history, but I feel that it is better to limit it to a few dates and to await the publishing of a more extensive history of Ski-ing in English than now exists.

COST OF A SKI-ING HOLIDAY IN WINTER

The expenses of a winter holiday differ according to the place chosen, the hotel and the organization to whose care you commit yourself, if any.  Any figures I quote are approximate and are subject to change owing to fluctuations in exchanges, etc.

If you go to a large hotel, with all its luxuries, you will pay anything from L1 a day upwards, and this may not include sports tax, etc.  The smaller hotels will probably make arrangements for pension at about 16 francs, or even 14 francs, or less, per day, but may not be very comfortable, and comfort is important in winter.  It is particularly necessary that the hotel should be well heated, as the drying of Ski-ing clothes is a very important point.