CHAPTER II 



TUNNIES AND THEIR RELATIONS 



We often say of a good swimmer that " he swims 

 like a fish ". And this remark very well expresses 

 what we feel, for the capacity to swim is the quality 

 we notice first about fishes. We have every excuse, 

 therefore, for comparing a good swimmer to a fish. 



The comparison, however, is not so apt as it might 

 seem. The fish, which is made to live in water, 

 moves easily in that element, but the same can 

 hardly be said of ourselves. Our lungs will not allow 

 us to stay long under the water. Our broad chests 

 hinder us from cleaving our way easily through it. 

 Swimming for us is by no means child's play. Many 

 people practise it, but few really become masters of 

 the art. It takes a strong constitution, hard and 

 vigorous training, to become one of those experts who, 

 apparently with little effort, dive, come up again, then 

 dive once more, moving as comfortably at the bottom 

 of the water as on the surface, and, by their agility, 

 reminding us of fishes. 



The motions of swimming, so far as we are con- 

 cerned, are unnatural. The quadrupeds, better off 

 than we are, only beat the water with their feet as if 

 they were walking or running, and so can support 

 themselves in the water, and even make progress. 

 Not so in our case. We are taught to stretch ourselves 

 out, lie down, and move our limbs in an almost 

 horizontal plane, and this position only allows us to 

 get the advantage of a limited part of the muscular 

 effort we have to make. Consequently, the progress 

 made even by a very rapid swimmer is not so great 

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