CHAPTER III 



THE DIFFERENT WAYS OF SWIMMING 



Different indeed; more different than one would 

 expect. Beside the first-class swimmers, driving 

 swiftly through the water, the tunnies or thonines 

 with their high-powered propeller at the stern, we 

 find other creatures less favoured than they are, 

 obliged to employ other and less efficient methods. 

 Such diversity of action, when we consider it in contra- 

 distinction to the uniformity of the original motive 

 power, for the motor is invariably the muscle with 

 its energy, and to that of the result, which is always 

 progress through the water, gives to life in the waters 

 one of its most characteristic and striking attributes. 

 The body turns everything into a fin, so as to enable 

 the animal to swim. 



On a recent expedition I visited the far south of 

 Tunisia, on the borders of Tripoli. At the end of 

 the Gulf of Gabes, dreaded by ancient navigators 

 because of its sudden violent storms, there is a large 

 salt lake, called by the Arabs " Bahiret-el-Bibane ", 

 which means " Little sea opened by gates ". This is 

 a great broad bay, almost closed at the entrance and 

 so converted into a lake measuring perhaps nineteen 

 miles by eight. In shape it looks rather like a bulging 

 flask, the narrow neck of which is only partially filled 

 by a cork, leaving a space on either side. This cork 

 is actually a little island, with passages or gates on 

 either side allowing communication between the sea 

 and this gulf, which is otherwise completely enclosed. 

 It is not very deep, only a few yards in fact, sometimes 

 hardly more than three or four feet. Its water is pure 



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