HINTS TO BEGINNERS. 259 



that all our fast swimmers come from inland towns. Boys at the sea have probably but a 

 few weeks, or at the outside but a few months, in the course of the year in which they find it 

 practicable to go into the water. Rough days, cold weather, too often deter lads from bathing, 

 though cases are indeed occasionally found in which men will bathe in the sea all the 

 year round, not only in midsummer, but in mid-winter as well. 



In commencing to teach a person to swim, the first point is entering the water, and here 

 ce u'est que le premier pas qui coute. Where the learner is very young the greatest difficulty 

 often is to induce him to enter the water at all. Still, most healthy boys are courageous 

 enough in this regard. 



"Having once persuaded a pupil to walk aboiit within his depth, the next great point is to 

 prove to him how great is the buoyancy of the water. I think it will be found that, in almost 

 all works written on the subject of swimming, the same plan is recommended, viz., to place 

 some object at the bottom of the bath (such as a large stone or piece of white chalk), and then 

 to tell the pupil to pick it up with his hand. He will now experience the difficulty, not of 

 keeping himself up, but of getting down. The buoyancy of the water is so great that, 

 supposing him to be about chest-deep, probably he will be unable to pick up the stone at all. 

 He will now find from this how very little is necessary to keep a man afloat." 



Another good plan is to let some person go into the water with the beginner, and float on. 

 his back, resting on the learner's hand. Then tell him to take his hand away for a second or 

 two at a time, and, so to speak, balance the body on his hand. He will find the pressure of 

 the body barely that of a few ounces. In fact, the human body is so nearly the same weight as 

 an equal bulk of water that the movement of the arms and legs in swimming is not necessary 

 so much to keep the body afloat as to keep it afloat in the right position. Many a drowning 

 man has come repeatedly to the surface, but often, unfortunately, the mouth or nose, through 

 which he could breathe, has not been the portion that reached the surface. Another method 

 by which you can give a pupil confidence is to go into the water yourself, and prove to him 

 by ocular demonstration how very slight a movement of the limbs is necessary to keep the 

 body afloat and the mouth above water. All good swimmers know how very little movement 

 of the hands or feet will be sufficient for this purpose. 



In commencing to learn, all boys should first learn to swim well on their chests. 

 Since the introduction of the side stroke it will be often found that lads who have barely 

 learned to swim properly at all try to imitate the first-class professionals, and in so doing 

 succeed simply in making themselves ridiculous. 



" The great secret of a good stroke/' says Webb, " is to kick out the legs wide ; and here 

 let me observe that it is a popular fallacy to imagine that the speed of the swimmer in any 

 way depends upon the resistance of the water against the soles of the feet. I have often heard 

 it observed 'Oh! that man would make a fine swimmer; he has got such large feet/ Now, 

 in the movement of the legs the flat of the foot never directly meets the water, except in the 

 case known as ' treading water/ The propelling power in swimming is caused by the legs 

 being suddenly brought from a position in which they are placed wide apart into one in which 

 they are close together, like the blades of a pair of scissors. In fact, the mechanical power 

 here brought into play is that of the wedge. For instance, suppose a wedge of ice were 

 suddenly pinched hard between the thumb and finger, it is evident that it would shoot off 



