The Winter Sport Season HE - instinct is very stron g ly deVeloped
in us al, otherwise it is impossible that about 15,000 people, should have been unable to . find accommodation in Switzerland during lait winter sports season. ...nriglish people as a whole seldom bother to think if they can get their thinking, done for them free of charge, and so, when they wish to spend a holiday in Switzerland, they "go. blindly each year to the same touring agencies aicti bookfor the .sanie. Siiss resorts, where they meet, naturally enough, pretty much the same .people doing theiaine things year. after year. This leads-to monotony iii:0411. as to Overcrowiling of Certain conventional Swiss res4ts. English people have also made up their minds that December and January are the only months to go to Switzerland, unmindful' of the fact that both the Weather and the gnu* conditions are generally' very itn'h. . . 'better in February' and the hotels less crowded and"- Utiich less . expensive. .. Unless-. there are .. school children or University young people, tci consider, there scents little reason forchoosing the earlier dates. *Maily of the _smaller and less . well known -Winter spOrts places are -crying . out for more visitors, and at most Of these the ski-ing is just as good at, or better than; at the larger places. There is no need to think beeauSe the V-illage-iS sinairthiit its hotels will be bad. I 'V&Y-' much doubtifa really bad hotel exists in Switzer- land, for the standard is always high. In the Urseren Thal, in Which lie Andermatt, Hospenthal, and Realp, there are at least a dozen hotels, four of them really -first-class and the rest a great deal better than the average English country hotel; yet during the whole of the 'winter sport season these hotels are not by any means full, though it would be hard to find places at which better sport can be had for any one who is expert enough to stand up- on skis. The snowfall is always greater in this corner of Switzerland, which lies just above the St. Gothard tunnel, than anywhere else, thus one is always certain of perfect ski-ing conditions with at least a metre of snow to make falling soft! The journey is one Of the easiest too, being only twenty-one hours from Victoria. Lenserheide in the Grisons is another place where there is plenty of accommodation to be had during January and February. Another small place with excellent ski-ing is Scheidegg, where both easy and difficult runs can be made. Those places mentioned so far have-been at considerable altitudes, but for those who do not care for height there is Lenk, Le Pont, or St. Cergue and many others. The English visitor need not fear that the hotels will be insufficiently warmed late in the season, or that there will be too few visitors to make the amusements "go." The Swiss hotel proprietors keep their good orchestras on until the very end of the season. An original sort of motor called a "motor bob" is in use in some of the remoter Alpine districts. In- place of wheels, which would get no grip on those icy roads of beaten snow, it has two rollers or cylinders shaped like heavy artillery shells, with flanges running corkscrew fashion from end to end. These rollers are chain-driven and form the rear wheels of the car. The front of the car rests on a pair of iron-shod skis. These skis would freeze to the ground if the car were left standing for more than a second or so. To obviate this, there is an excellent arrangement by which they are heated from the exhaust. Two large flexible pipes carry the exhaust direct from the engine to the skis instead of its being taken into a silencer. The engine is a 2 cyl. J.A.P., and it is said to attain quite a considerable speed on good going. But the great advantage of the machine is that it can leave the road if necessary and plough along over fresh snow unless it is too heavily loaded.
HONOR GOODU A RT.
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