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better swimmers than Dunmore could from, say, 1860 to 1875. But now 

 lots of seaside places have tip-top aquatic performers, and nearly every 

 boy, not to speak of young man, cm swim well. They, too, have games 

 in the water we never had — polo, tug-of-war, &c., and sp'endidly do we 

 see them played, particularly in the " Forty- foot " at Kingstown, where 

 hundreds of young and old men bathe every day in the summer. Mr. 

 Carson, to whom we are indebted for the comfortable accommodation 

 found there, bathes all the year round, showing himself light with a 

 lantern for the operation during the winter ! 



What a wonderful difference is to be found in the buoyancy of water, 

 of course attributable to its degree of saltness and depth. I was 

 returning home once from Oporto in a cattle steamer bound for London. 

 The Bay of BitCiy was smooth as glass, the day intensely hot, the 

 markets were low, so there was no particular hurry, and there was but 

 one other passenger on board. I therefore asked the skipper, a good- 

 natured fellow, to stop the engines and let me have a header off the 

 steamer's tide. He demurred at first, fearing I might not be as good 

 in the water as I told him I was ; or, if so, that there might be some 

 hungry shark on the look-out for a meal. However, he consented at 

 last, and in I went head foremost. The drop was, I should say, twelve 

 feet, but so strong was the water I did not go more than two feet under. 

 I could tread water with my body as far as the armpits over the sur- 

 face, while to float was as e isy as to lie on a sofa. I did not stay in 

 long, however, f-ir the water was very cold. I forget how deep the 

 captain told me it was, but I think the fathoms represented something 

 like a mile on land. 



This long yarn must be wearisome to the reader, but as I considered 

 a"prank like that real sport in those days, thinking upon it now is quite 

 on the line of my hunt. 



That the British excel all other nations in manly exercise no one can 

 deny, for to us all games and pastimes come easy. None, however, de- 

 monstrates the fact clearer than does skating. With only very few days in 

 the year to practise this invigorating pastime, we have, taking them all 

 round, as good performers on the ice as are to be found in any of the 

 countries where skating is the principal means of locomotion When 

 hard frost comes on in England we see all through the country men and 

 also ladies go on skates over our frozen lakes in style, whether as 

 regards pace or in graceful execution of fancy cutting, which neither a 

 northern European nor yet a Canadian can excel. For my part I did 

 nob take much to skating, and could never do more, when shod wdth iron, 

 than go ahead. I disliked the frost because it stopped hunting, and in 

 the early stages of its appearance I betook, with my dog and gun, to 

 following snipe and wildfowl in preference to having anything to do 

 with what had caused the stoppage of the king of sports, and thereby 

 showing even a semblance of sympathy with it. 



In selecting London, as I do in the next few pages, to show how great 

 has been the improvement in the condition of men within the past five 



