PROGEESSION ON AND IN THE WATER. 



79 



body be placed slantingly in a strong current, and the hands 

 made to grasp a stone or branch. In this case the body is 

 raised to the surface of the stream by the action of the run- 

 ning water, the body remaining motionless. The quantity of 

 water which, under the circumstances, impinges against the 

 body in a given time is much greater than if the body was 

 simply immersed in still water. To increase the area of sup- 

 port, either the supporting medium or the body supported 

 must move. The body is supported in water very much as 

 the kite is supported in air. In both cases the body and the 

 kite are made to strike the water and the air at a slight 

 upward angle. When the extremities are made to move in 

 a horizontal or slightly downward direction, they at once 

 propel and support the body. When, however, they are made 

 to act in an upward direction, as in diving, they submerge 

 the body. This shows that the movements of the swimming 

 surfaces may, according to their direction, either augment or 

 destroy buoyancy. The swimming surfaces enable the seal, 

 sea-bear, otter, ornithorhynchus, bird, etc., to disappear from 

 and regain the surface of the water. Similar remarks may 

 be made of the whale, dugong, manatee, and fish. 



Man, in order to swim, must learn the art of swimming. 

 He must serve a longer or shorter apprenticeship to a new 

 form of locomotion, and acquire a new order of movements. 

 It is otlierwise with the majority of animals. Almost all 

 quadrupeds can swim the first time they are immersed, 

 as may readily be ascertained by throwing a newly born 

 kitten or puppy into the water. The same may be said of 

 the greater number of birds. This is accounted for by the fact 

 that quadrupeds and birds are lighter, bulk for bulk, than 

 water, but more especially, because in walking and running 

 the movements made by their extremities are precisely those 

 required in swimming. They have nothing to learn, as it 

 were. They are buoyant naturally, and if they move their 

 limbs at all, which they do instinctively, they swim of neces- 

 sity. It is different with man. The movements made by 

 him in walking and running are not those made by him in 

 swimming ; neither is the position resorted to in swimming 

 that which characterizes him on land. The vertical position 



