Skate Runners.

At Drontheim, in Norway, they have a regiment of soldiers, called Skate Runners. They wear leg gaiters for travelling in deep snow, and green uniform. They carry a short sword, a rifle fastened by a broad strap passing over the shoulder, and a climbing staff seven feet long, with a spike in the end. They move so fast in the snow that no cavalry can overtake them, and it does little good to fire cannon balls at them, as they go two or three hundred feet apart. They are very useful soldiers in following an enemy on a march. They go over marshes, rivers and lakes at a great rate.