The Athletes and Athletic Sports of Scotland

TOSSING THE CABER. 61 turn on making their toss, purposely give the small end aturn over to one side as well as an upward heave as it leaves their hands, so that the small end,without ever being nearly perpen­ dicular, may fall at 2,3, or 4, with the result that they sometimes get a prize—not on the merit of their toss, but partly by their own trickery, partly through the ignorance of the judges. The great drawback to the popularity of the caberis the timeit often takes to decide theprizes. This isgenerally the faultof incom­ petent judges, who, not knowing how to decide unless between a straight over and a side throw, keep cutting the caber and making half-a-dozen competitors turn again and againafter their three trials, and take an hour or more to decide what a compe­ tent judge would have settled as satisfactorily in a third of the time. BEST PERFORMANCES.— For several reasons it is almost impossible to make afair comparison between different perfor­ mances with the caber. Two cabers might be the same length and weight, yet if the first was much thicker and heavier atone end than the other, and the second nearly the same thickness and weight at both ends,the first would be much easier to turn than the second. As a rule, cabers differ more or less atevery gathering, and often at the same gathering from year to year. The best plan is to have three dry seasoned cabers at each place differing in length and weight. These, if bound at the thick end with an iron hoop to prevent wear, and takea sure grip of the ground, would last for many years, and save much waste of time, by beginning with the medium-sizedone first. At caber- tossing, Donald Dinnie was in his prime a goodway ahead of all of his rivals, George Davidson, Kenneth M'Rae, andDonald M'Donald, Lawers, comingnext in order ofmerit; with James Fleming, Donald M'Donald, Tullymet, and William Fleming, Dundee, all well up—the last four all Perthshire men ;whilst William Bremner, John Moir, John George, William M'Chray, Aberdeenshire, AlexanderMackay, Argyle, and Thomas Michie, Perthshire, deserve honourablemention.