The Pedestrian's Record

42 the pedestrian's record. world would suppose ; they have many of them suf­ ficient physical development to assure an anatomist of their strength, and they possess a lightness of body which, experience has proved, is capable of a pro­ longed endurance whichstronger frames cannot bear. The entire organismof a big man must be large, and in running great weight has to be propelled, and over a short course the journey certainly is not far, but it has to be accomplished as quickly as possible ; the great strength can withstand the effects of this im­ position on the nervous centres and muscles for a period of short duration, which cannot with safety be prolonged over two minutes. Some 440-yard runners can do the half-mile in splendid time. F. J. K.Cross and A. G. Le Maitre, Arcadesambo, Oxford men both, are good performers at both distances, but as a rule the quarter, and sometimes 600 yards, is the longest drag a first-class sprinter can accomplish ; and this distance to a George would be only a flutter, but he could not travel over a quarter at the speed of a Wood or a Myers. Sprinters undergo, during their short races, severe strain ; and to withstand the effects of which it is necessary that all the muscles of their bodies should be strongly developed, and, as a rule, they are. Yet this marked virility and dominance of form adds weight to the body, and imposes great exertion on the limbs, and principally on the legs, which has a tendency to exhaust aheavy man sooner than a man of lighter build, who, having little to carry, can run his 4 to 10 miles, win his race, and at the