Page images
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][merged small][graphic]

MONTAGUE HOLBEIN DEMONSTRATING THE CORRECT METHOD OF HIGH DIVING.

ing one's self by its means, for an oar of average size is certainly not buoyant enough to support a man, if grasped as the first impulse would direct. There is only one way in which the oar will support a human being. It must be ridden just as a child rides his hobby-horse. The haft is put between the legs and the blade allowed to project above the surface in front of the swimmer. This leaves him both hands free for propulsion and balance, and the oar so used will be found an amazingly useful adjunct for a very long distance.

But, it will be objected, these hints are for people who can swim. As to the mere beginner, I would certainly advise him to take his first lesson in open river, lake or sea rather than in a swimming

A floating manilla rope fastened to something on shore is also most useful.

Now wade in quietly without hurry and anxiety until you are waist deep. Stop here and paddle about until you have confidence. Now face the shore, grip your rope tightly, and bob down, immersing yourself completely. You will come up to puff and blow; always remember there is no hurry. Jump up and down a little, and you will learn how buoyant the water is and how little effort is required to keep yourself afloat. Move about as much as you please, but don't release your hold on the rope. In fact, I strongly recommend that the first lesson should be devoted to acquiring complete confidence whilst immersed up to the chin. I think,

too, that floating should be learned before swimming.

You will learn floating in this way: Walk into the water almost up to your shoulders. Then, with your back to the shore bend the knees until the water is level with your chin. Lay the head well back, keeping the mouth closed until the water is up to your ears. Now stretch the arms slowly behind your head, palms upwards. Inhale a long, deep breath and you will feel your legs rising to the surface. Throw your head a little further back still, and you will find you are floating. But the moment you exhale you will begin to sink.

Don't be nervous, but draw in a fresh breath as quickly as you can, when chest and head will instantly rise an inch or so further out of the water. Confidence is everything; and before you tackle your first real swimming-lesson walk into the water shoulder deep and face the shore. Hold out your arms straight in front, palms downwards two or three inches below the surface. Now throw your head well back, inhale a deep breath, push gently off the ground with your feet, and bring your arms right around with a steady sweep.

This done, let your feet touch bottom and you will find yourself a yard or two nearer shore. Repeat this experiment again and again, letting yourself be carried on the water as you make this stroke from the standing posture, and you have fought more than half the battle of learning to swim. It only remains to make the legs do their share in propulsion. This they do as you stretch the arms before you and push off. Draw up the knees and kick out the legs, opening them as widely as possible. Then bring your heels together with as determined a sweep as you are capable of, forcing the water out from between them and propelling the body forward. And after one joint arm-sweep and leg-kick, touch bottom and recover breath, repeating this until you combine effectively both arm and leg action.

As to unexpected difficulties in the water, cramp must come first-a most unpleasant and serious seizure, yet nothing like so dangerous as is commonly supposed. In my opinion it is loss of presence of mind that causes all the

deaths usually attributed to cramp. Should this muscular seizure suddenly affect any part when the shore is handy, lose no time in reaching it-remembering that even should both legs be disabled you can paddle ashore with your hands.

Or if both arms are seized, you have only to lie on your back and get to the shore by striking with your legs. But should assistance be absent and the shore far off, different tactics must be adopted. First of all keep your presence of mind. If cramp is felt in the calf of the leg just below the knee-the most frequent place -turn on your back at once; bend the toes upward; kick out the affected leg in the air; ignore the pain, paddling with one hand and rubbing the other smartly over the spot. Cramp usually comes as an after-effect of indigestion, or it may be due to the coldness of the water. Swimmers addicted to it constantly should never venture out of their depth.

To take

I would recommend occasional practice in old clothes that the day of misfortune may not take us at a disadvantage. Undressing one's self in the water is much easier than it seems. off a coat, you should "tread water” and throw off the garment dexterously. Boots are disposed of one at a time lying on the back, paddling with one hand and undoing buttons or laces with the other. When this is done push your shoe off by pressing with the toes of the other foot upon the heel.

Trousers may be dispensed with by swimming on the back, giving short legstrokes and undoing belt or suspenders as quickly as possible. The next manoeuvre is to paddle with the hands and shake the feet, which allows the garment. to slip off, giving perfect freedom to the

swimmer.

Weeds are a source of real danger in sea, river, and pond. Sometimes they grow so deep that they are hidden from view, and yet will entrap the swimmer's limbs. Here again the great thing is to keep one's presence of mind. Lie as flat as possible, make a few short rapid. kicks, and simultaneously pull the water towards you with hollowed hands, whose fingers are pressed tightly together.

A popular error is that colds are never caught from sea water. This is quite

a mistake, and I always insist on a sharp rub down with a Turkish towel directly after leaving the water. Then if you wish to obtain full benefit from your dip in the sea, follow this up with a sharp walk or canter along the beach. with bare feet and finish off with a sun-bath on the rocks.

As to saving the life of another, this does not require an extraordinarily strong swimmer; nor is it advisable to wait until the drowning person comes up a third time-for if he does this at all he will not be far on this side of the border of life. The great thing is to keep out of the clutches of the drowning, otherwise both will be lost-as a long list of fatalities every year so mournfully proves. Watch your opportunity and grasp your charge firmly by the hair or the back of the neck, approaching

from behind. He will lose such selfcontrol as he has the moment you fail to keep his head out of the water. The mere splash of a wave will start him struggling frantically again, unless it be a fellow-swimmer attacked by cramp and amenable to reason. Should he strive to turn and seize you, catch him under the armpits, and by holding him in this way you will keep his head higher out of the

water.

If a person can swim ever so little it requires but a trifling support to enable him to await calmly a long-delayed rescue. And most interesting experiments are being made in this matter of life-saving in the public parks of London, Paris, and Berlin, where absolutely free tuition is given to children in the public schools by competent instructors engaged by the Municipal Councils.

[graphic][merged small][merged small]
[merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][graphic][graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small]

men, while the spread of one of his long clawed feet takes up a square foot of ground.

It was fortunate from a naturalist's and educator's standpoint that so valuable a specimen of the big game of the country did not fall into the hands of

Alaska region, under the direction of a well known and experienced arctic hunter. The main feature of the last trip was a great bear hunt, lasting nineteen days, the most important trophy of which was the sixteen hundred pound forest monster here described. The vari

ous pictures reproduced, with the taxidermist at work alongside, show off to good advantage the giant creature's size. Truly a formidable adversary, capable of dealing death with a single blow of his powerful paws. Seated within the shadow of big bruin, the writer had an hour's chat with one of the members of the expedition, who related some of the main incidents connected with his capture, which is herewith condensed into the following narrative:

Our hunting expedition in quest of large mammals of the Alaskan Peninsula, left Seattle last summer and made our first camp near Muller Bay, on the Bering Sea side of the peninsula. On the second day in camp we found fresh bear tracks of different sizes, which led down to a small stream. As it was only a few weeks. after their season of coming out from their winter dens to forage for food, such as fish, grass and roots, etc., this practically established the fact that near by was a family or colony of bears. The animals retire to their dens about the last week of September, and remain until April. They do not go far from their dens at first and often return to them at night. And our early hopes were fulfilled, for on May 29 we were destined to bring down the Herculean sixteen-hundred-pound brown bear, the largest ever taken on the Alaskan Peninsula, and claimed to be the record-break

[graphic]

THE HUGE SKIN COMPARED WITH A SIX-FOOT MAN.

natives, or some careless white commercial hunters. Owing to the persistent hunting by both Indian and white sportsmen, many of the large and splendid types of animals of sub-arctic America are fast being exterminated, notwithstanding the restriction of the game laws. To secure and permanently preserve some of the great forest denizens alike to science and to the intelligent big game lovers, some $5,000 was contributed for a systematic round up of the animal inhabitants of the southeastern

« PreviousContinue »