Adg. 25, 1882. 



KNOWLEDGE 



213 



palms of the hands together, and so thrust them forward, 

 then separating them and forming each hand into a cup- 

 shaped paddle, in the way already described, you carry 

 them with a wide sweep backward, so that tlie hand- 

 paddles drive back as much water as possible, you are, 

 of course, carried forward ; and you can repeat this 

 action as oft^n as you like, without using the legs 

 at alL Or again, if you let your arms and hands 

 simply wave about in front of you, keeping your 

 balance, you can use your legs and feet in a rough-and- 

 ready way to propel you, drawing the feet up under you 

 aslant to the water, and kicking them back square to the 

 water. Or you can progress more systematically by the 

 process called " swimming like a dog," in which each hand 

 is alternately slid for«-ard, points of the fingers first, as far 

 as it will go, and then drawn strongly back, held down- 

 ward from the wrist in the cup-paddle form, while the legs 

 also move alternately to give a kind of slow, backward 

 kick, like that olready described. In these and many other 

 ways you can now get about in the water, not very quickly, 

 but probably as fast as you want to go, and quite safely, — 

 though, of course, it is well not to go out of your depth. 



Still, this is not to be called swimming. If you want 

 to swim well, you must learn from the beginning a good 

 style, — which really means the sound, scientific application 

 of the methods of progression possible in the water. That 

 you may the better do this, do not be in a hurry ; but first 

 practise several things which will increase your confidence 

 in the water, and enable you, when you do begin to learn 

 the true swimming strokes — the breast stroke and the side 

 stroke — to give your whole attention to style. 



First, then, learn how to float on the back. 



This is easier by far than learning to balance with the 

 back uppermost (and the mouth out of water — a desirable 

 state of things for those who prefer to breathe). But it is 

 not right to learn firfl to float on the back, just because it 

 is so easy that the learner is apt to stop there, and make 

 no further progress. Besides, in turning from back floating 

 to front floating, it is just as well to be able comfortably 

 to balance in the latter position, and not be obliged igno- 

 miniously to splutter and struggle into a standing position. 



Standing up to the breast in the water, your back to- 

 wards the shore, hold the arms out on cither side, or inclined 

 rather upwards and backwards, lean gently backwards — 

 further and further, until the arms and the back of the 

 head enter the water : you leave the ground, and at the 

 tirst few trials you feel as if your head and shoulders 7?n<.<< 

 dip under. But they cannot do it, even if you try. The 

 odd thing is that when you lean forward from a standing 

 position in the water, you feel as if you could readily 

 balance yourself, yet as soon as the feet leave the ground 

 the beginner invariably goes head under, but when you 

 lean backwards with the arms outstretched, you feel as if 

 you were surely going under, yet as soon as the feet leave 

 the ground j-ou find yourself lying as comfortably on the 

 water as if you were on a feather bed. There is scarcely 

 any tendency to roll sideways, and what there is is very 

 easily controlled by the hands in the water. But so little 

 is there that after the first few trials you can put your arms 

 or hands under the back of the head and float on your back 

 as if you were going to sleep in that position on the green- 

 sward. 



To progress in any required direction, when floating on 

 the back, is exceedingly easy. You can hold the arras 

 «asily alonspide and work the hands from the wrist, 

 " cupping " them for greater driving action, if necessary, 

 or you can use the arms more freely, taking advantage of 

 their full sweep. The legs can be used by gentle kicking, 

 slanting the feet as you draw them up for tho kick, and 



squaring them against the water as you give it But you 

 can now try a method of propulsion with the legs, which 

 will prove much better, and gi%'e you an insight into the 

 true principle of leg propulsion in swimming. Floating on 

 the back, gently draw up both legs, and kick them out 

 simultaneously as far apart as you conveniently can ; there 

 then lies between them a triangular space of water. Bring 

 them now, still extended, close together, forcing out, of 

 course, towards the feet, the water which had lain between 

 them (the action is like closing the blades of a pair of 

 scissors). This action, you will find, produces a strong 

 propulsive eftect, — the forcing of the water backwards 

 urges, in fact, the body forwards. 



While learning these preliminary exercises in order to 

 acquire a good swimming style, both for breast-stroke and 

 side-stroke, learn to roll over easily from the back to either 

 side, and from the side to the front, until you feel as little 

 care about any of these movements as you would about 

 the corresponding nv vements in bed. To make them more 

 difticult, change your floating positions from back to front 

 either way after expelling the air from the lungs, being 

 careful, however, to do this at first only in shallow water ; 

 for though, after a little time, no difficulty whatever is 

 found in bringing the mouth above water when the lungs 

 are exhausted, it is, at first, rather discomfiting to find 

 how very little floating power remains after the air has 

 been expelled. I have seen a learner very much confused 

 by the depressing eflect of a hearty laugh in which he had 

 indulged when floating. But of course, after a little 

 experience, the learner finds out the advantage of keeping 

 his floating apparatus, the lungs, well filled with air. It 

 also does not take him long to learn that it is not quite the 

 right time to replenish them when the mouth is under water. 

 (To be continued.) 



BUTTERFLY PRINTING. 



By E. N. Parker. 



BEFORE commencing a description of this (to my 

 mind) most useful way of preserving butterflies and 

 moths, I may perhaps be allowed to mention that " Butter- 

 fly Printing" is not an exact term for the method, which 

 should be more properly described as " Butterfly 

 Gumming," or by some longer collection of words, which 1 

 will leave to your readers to put together for themselves. 



The best time for the work will be found to be during 

 the long winter evenings at home, after the collecting 

 season is over ; but 1 think this description is timely now, 

 as a number of specimens of the common sorts can be 

 captured, and used for practice and gaining experience in 

 the method about to be described, without which the 

 collector would, no doubt, hesitate some time (and with 

 reason) before using his perhaps solitary specimen of some 

 rare species, taken after the expenditure of a large amount 

 of time, trouble, and, possibly, money. 



The materials are few and simple, and all that will l>e 

 found absolutely necessary arc two conmion penny paint- 

 brushes of camel-hair (so-called) one largo and one small, 

 an ounce of gum arable, and a quire of thick cream-laid 

 note-paper, a pair of tweezers, which should be pointed 

 bluntly and slightly lient, so that tho points meet when 

 squeezed without the rest of the instrument touching (or 

 a pair of tweezers taken from the microscope box, slightly 

 bent in the same way, will answer as well) ; a tumbler or 

 wineglass broken across the stem, and a few sheets of thick 

 blotting paper torn into strips of about 6 in. long by 2 in. 

 broad. 



