firmly attached with heel and toe straps made of heavy leather. "Long reachers" were ideally suited for the long expanse of the St John and Kennebecasis Rivers. A man on these skates could travel long distances in a relatively short period of time. From Saint John to Fredericton, by the way of the St John River, is a distance of about eighty miles. It was not uncommon for an able-bodied young man to skate this distance in a little under seven hours. Some of the skaters from the Saint John River area became world class speed skating champions, notably Hugh J. McCormick. See also Touring skates Ice skating References External links 100% Natural Ice: Wild skating on frozen lakes & rivers Royal Netherlands Skating Union KNSB Nordic skating official terms by the Finnish Skating Union SLL-SLU of Finland Nordic skating Association of Finland Timo Salmi in Finland on long distance (tour) skating Skyllermarks, Sweden Mark Harris, Uppsala, Sweden Tour Skating In Sweden, Simple overview but mentions new bindings for use with non-specialist footwear, UK Ice safety video from ICEGuide Stockholm Adventures on Youtube Ice skating Ice skating sports Ice in transportation