While little information can be obtained from classic writers concerning the ἁλτῆρες, much can be learned from archæological specimens. Pausanias describes them as having the form of a semi-oval, or inaccurately-rounded ring that could be grasped by the fingers as a shield was grasped. This description corresponds with a drawing of the ἁλτῆρες on a vase in Hamilton’s second collection. Ἁλτῆρες of another shape, however, resembling very closely the modern dumb-bells, are seen on many other vases and gems. These had both ends rounded, and were narrow in the middle in order that they might be easily held. In Hamilton’s first collection are vases giving representations of these ἁλτῆρες. In the Museo Borbonico may be seen on a patera a drawing in which the ἁλτῆρες have still another form: when the hand has grasped the handle of these, beyond the hand, on one side only, a club-shaped part protrudes. The ἁλτῆρες were usually made of lead. In the pentathla, leaping never took place without ἁλτῆρες, which the athlete usually held directly in front of him, and then, as he sprang, brought behind him, thus helping to propel his body forward. In addition to the ἁλτῆρες, professional athletes made use of another aid--the βατήρ. The latter was a board on which they stood before taking the leap, and which may indeed have been provided with a spring. Pausanias especially mentions the fact that the leaping of the pentathli in the Olympic festival was accompanied by airs on the flute. This music was probably to open the pentathlon, the most splendid and stirring of gymnastic contests, as well as to increase the courage of the leapers. The only leap that belonged to the pentathlon was the standing long jump. There is no trace of anything like the hop, step and jump. The figures of athletes on vases are represented not as running, but as standing and swinging the ἁλτῆρες. Then, too, it would seem that in the running jump the weights would be an impediment rather than an aid. With the aid of the ἁλτῆρες and the βατήρ enormous distances were covered. Phaÿllos of Rhegium is said to have covered more than fifty-five feet at a leap. But the record is incredible. Some German professors, however, are inclined to credit the record on the ground that the ancients had studied the theory of leaping more scientifically than have the moderns. For the sake of comparison the modern records in jumping may be introduced. On May 28, 1890, J. Darby of England, without the aid of weights, made a standing long jump of 12½ feet. At Romeo, Mich., October 3, 1879, with 22-pound weights, G. W. Hamilton made a standing jump of 14 feet, 5½ inches. A record of 23 feet, 6½ inches, in the running long jump has been made twice: by C. L. Reber at Detroit, July 4, 1891, and by C. B. Frye of England, March 4, 1893. A jump of 48 feet, 8 inches, without weights and preceded by a hop and a step, was made October 18, 1884, by T. Burrows of Worcester.