GOLDEN RULES FOR BATHERS. 263 



a ship with only two or three dozen would have an ample supply in such emergency. 

 Practically tested in a swimming-bath, several bathers could not sink one placed there for 

 the experiment, and it took a dead weight of nearly a hundredweight to do so. The 

 buoy being water-tight could, of course, be utilised for carrying a supply of water, 

 biscuit, or other food, valuable ship's papers, and so forth, and without materially impairing 

 its buoyancy, while several lashed together would form a raft. Two ropes are attached to 

 each seat. When one considers the confusion and panic that too often attend collisions, 

 fires at sea, and shipwrecks generally, this invention would prove of incalculable value, as 

 it could be utilised on the immediate spur of the moment. 



The Royal Humane Society promulgates the following golden rules for bathers (and 

 which apply also in part to swimmers), prepared by competent authorities : 1. Avoid 

 bathing within two hours after a meal. 2. Avoid bathing when exhausted by fatigue. 

 2. Avoid bathing when the body is cooling after perspiration. But 4. Bathe when the 

 body is warm, provided no time be lost in getting into the water. 5. Avoid chilling the 

 l)ody by sitting- naked on the banks or in boats after having been in the water. 6. Avoid 

 remaining too long in the water leave the water immediately there is the slightest feeling 

 of dullness. 7. Avoid bathing altogether in the open air, if, after having been a short 

 time in the water, there is a sense of chilliness with numbness of the hands and feet. 8. The 

 vigorous and strong may bathe early in the morning on an empty stomach. 9. The young 

 and those that are weak had better bathe three hours after a meal the best time for such 

 is from two to three hours after breakfast. 10. Those who are subject to attacks of 

 giddiness or faintness, and those who suffer from palpitation and other sense of discomfort 

 at the heart, should not bathe without first consulting their medical adviser. 



And now we must speak of the greatest swimmer of our day one who has never been 

 excelled. Captain Matthew Webb swam the Channel when he was but twenty-six years of 

 age. The son of a country surgeon, he had early become fond of the sea, and obtained 

 liis first instruction on board the Conway training ship at Liverpool. 



The event in Webb's life which first brought his name prominently before the public in 

 connection with swimming took place on board the Cunard steamship Russia, then on the 

 homeward voyage from America. One day a tremendous heavy sea caused the ship to roll .in 

 a manner which rendered it almost impossible for any one to keep their feet without a life-line 

 (i.e., a rope stretched along or across the deck from one point to another), and all of a sudden 

 aery arose, "A man overboard!" A poor young fellow, Michael Hynes byname, who had 

 teen ordered aloft in the main rigging to " clear the sheet/' had missed his hold, and fell 

 backwards into the water. Webb saw him fall, and within two or three seconds was after him 

 in the sea, but, alas! could see nothing of him, save his cap floating on the waves. On 

 this occasion he was thirty-seven minutes in the water before he was picked up by the 

 Russia's lifeboat, the waves being "mountains high/' and the ship going at fifteen knots. 

 Webb was utterly unable to save the poor fellow, who was never seen to rise again, but 

 for his noble attempt deservedly received the leading medal, the " Stanhope gold medal " 

 of the Royal Humane Society of London, another from the Liverpool Humane Society, 

 and 100 from the passengers on board the Russia. 



The first time that Captain Webb took up the idea of swimming the Channel was after a 



