The Athletes and Athletic Sports of Scotland

STRONG MEN AND THEIR FEATS OF STRENGTH. 19 wards and resting against a strong frame, with a strong girdle round his loins, a ring being attached to the girdle in front. A ' rope or chain, with a hook for inserting in the ring, went out between his legs through ahole in the frame against which his feet rested. Two horseswhen attached to this chain were un- ible to pull him from his position. Eckeberg took a hold ofthe hhain or rope betweenhis legs and pretended to pull stronglyby it while the horses were pulling. In reality it did not matter Ivhether he pulled or not, he might have sat with folded arms. I THE FEAT EXPLAINED.— The feat, as Dr. Brewsterpoints out, r depends entirelyon the natural strength of the bones ofthe lelvis, whichform a double arch, which it would require an im- liense force to break by any external pressure directed to the lentre of the arch ; and as the legs and thighs are capable of lustaining four or five thousand pounds when they stand quite •pright, the performer has no difficulty in resisting the force of Iwo horses, or of sustaining the weightof a cannon weighing two ftr three thousand pounds." The cannon was placed ona frame lesting onblocks ofwood. Eckeberg stood on a platform above i:, with his girdle round his loins, from which a chain was Ittached to ther chainsfrom the cornersof the frameon which •he cannon rested. At one end of the platform on which he Itood weretwo uprights, with a cross-bar at a convenient height, •n whiche rested his hands. When the blocks were knocked Bway from beneath the frameon which the cannon rested, Ecke- Berg sustained the weightof the cannon ; that is, he did not lift •, but merely keptit suspended. I Eckeberg, also, with an anvil placed on his breast, allowed Bien to hammer with all their might at iron on the anvil,and to Break stones, and to break large stones placed on his belly, •his feat with the anvil had been practised by the Eastern •eneral, Eirmus,who was slain in 273 A.D. In thisand similar i'ats, says Dr. Brewster, "The difficulty really consists in sus- •fining the anvil, forwhen this isdone the effectof the hammer- •'g is nothing. If the anvil were a thin piece ofiron, or even