SWIMMING.
General Remarks.--Rate of Swimming. People swim much more slowly than is
commonly supposed. In races between first-rate swimmers, for distances of
300 yards and upwards, the average pace of two miles an hour is barely,
if at all, exceeded.
Learning to Swim.--A good way of teaching a person to swim, is a
modification of that adopted at Eton. The teacher may sit in a punt or on
a rock, with a stout stick of 6 or 10 feet in length, at the end of which
is a cord of 4 feet or so, with loops. The learner puts himself into the
loops; and the teacher plays him, as a fisherman would play a fish, in
water that is well out of his depth: he gives him just enough support to
keep him from drowning. After six or a dozen lessons, many boys require
no support at all, but swim about with the rope dangling slack about
them. When a boy does this, he can be left to shift for himself. The art
of swimming far is acquired, like the art of running far, by a
determination to go on, without resting a moment, until utterly unable to
make a stroke further, and then to stop altogether. Each succeeding day,
the distance travelled is marvellously increased, until the natural limit
of the man's powers is attained. The chilliness consequent on staying
long in water is retarded by rubbing all over the body, before entering
it, about twice as much oil or bear's-grease as a person uses for his
hair.
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