258 THE SEA. 



may/' says Byron, "in some measure be estimated from the circumstance of the whole distance 

 being accomplished by one of the parties in an hour and five, and by the other in an hour and 

 ten minutes. The water was extremely cold from the melting of the mountain snows. About 

 three weeks before, in April, we had made an attempt ; but having ridden all the way from the 

 Troad the same morning, and the water being of an icy chillness, we found it necessary to 

 postpone the completion till the frigate anchored below the castles, when we swam the straits 

 as just stated, entering a considerable way above the European, and landing below the Asiatic 

 fort. Chevalier says that a young Jew swam the same distance for his mistress, and Oliver 

 mentions it having been done by a Neapolitan ; but our consul, Tarragona, remembered neither 

 of these circumstances, and tried to dissuade us from the attempt. A number of the Salsetie's 

 crew were known to have accomplished a greater distance, and the only thing that surprised 

 me was that, as doubts had been entertained of the truth of Leander's story, no traveller had 

 ever endeavoured to ascertain its practicability." Byron's allusion to the ague caught was 

 simply put in for effect."* 



In presenting this chapter f on swimming and feats of natation, the writer is earnest in 

 the hope that it may lead to a more general knowledge and practice of the art. Were it merely 

 the healthy, manly exercise it is, it would be worthy of all encouragement; but there is 

 another and a more important side to the question. Annually thousands of valuable lives are 

 lost which might be easily saved, not by others, but by their own knowledge. Every father of 

 a family should make his children learn at the earliest opportunity, and, except in the case of 

 very delicate children, they will inevitably take kindly to the exercise. Young men should 

 count it as one of their most pleasant and useful recreations. Cricket, rowing, riding (if even 

 on a bicycle) are to-day among the accomplishments of almost all respectable youths ; let all 

 of them add swimming to the list. The first three are health-giving and invigorating 

 pursuits; the art of natation is all this, and very much more besides. Some one or more in 

 every large family to-day travel or voyage frequently ; usually one, two, or more are settled in 

 the colonies or foreign countries, to reach or return from which the wide ocean must be 

 crossed. And in spite of steam and all modern facilities, wrecks are not unknown to-day. 

 The writer strongly advocates the establishment of Government schools of swimming. 



Every year the papers record numerous cases of drowning, but the ?m-recorded cases are 

 far more numerous. Not long since the National Lifeboat Institution published an in- 

 structive chart of the numbers lost in one year in inland waters, rivers, lakes, and ponds. It 

 amounted to scarcely less than two thousand persons, a large proportion being young people, 

 all of whom ought to have been able to swim. The full annual record of those lost at 

 sea and on the coasts would be something appalling. 



There is no doubt that swimming is much easier learned in youth than in middle age, and 

 the younger a lad is the easier it is for him to learn. Of all places for this purpose none will 

 be found better than a bath. It will always be found that where the water is warm it is 

 much easier to remain in a long period than where the water is cold. It is for this reason 



* The feat of swimming across the Dardanelles was also successfully accomplished by Lieut. Moore and Gunner 

 Mahoney, of H.M.S. Shearwater, on the 25th November, 1872. 



| We are indebted to Captain Webb's " Art of Swimming," edited by A. G. Payne ; " The Channel Feats," 

 &c., by "Dolphin"; the Journals of the National Life-Boat Institution and the Shipwrecked Mariners' Society. 



