. DIVING, PLUNGING, AND FLOATING' TUE deeds of the diver have been sung from time imme morial. In early ages his occupation was an honoured and practical one, and frequent references to the services rendered by him in time of war are to be found in the classics. Schiller's celebrated poem of The Diver' was founded on the traditional feats of a renowned diver named Nicholas, who, from his skill as a swimmer, was surnamed The Fish.' Kirchner was credulous enough to believe that this man would often stay in the water five days at a time, subsisting on the fish which he caught ; and that his extraordinary power was due to the fact that the spaces between his fingers and toes were webbed. His fame became noised abroad, and King Frederick of Sicily commanded him to give an exhibition of his powers. The King selected the Gulf of Charybdis as the scene of the exploit ; and, in order to incite Nicholas to a deed of daring, threw a golden cup into the whirlpool. It is stated that after a considerable time he rose to the surface, holding the cup, but that upon making a second attempt he was drowned.
The daring nature of the feats performed by modern divers are in themselves incentives to ordinary swimmers, and the gene ral ambition of a beginner is to become an expert diver. The whole secret of diving is the possession of plenty of pluck and self-confidence. A man need not be a good swimmer to become an expert diver ; there are many, indeed, who can dive well but swim little. As in every other branch, practice is a sine qua stun ; but after careful tuition the swimmer will fearlessly dive from a height, enter the water gracefully, and emerge therefrom ready for another dive immediately. Diving is but slightly en couraged in this country, and the exhibitions of it are few and far between. This is all the more surprising when it be re membered that in every race the swimmer has to dive at the start, for with a little knowledge of the art of diving a much better position could often be secured if, at the beginning of the race, he could get well away with a neat skimming plunge. But everything is now subordinated to short-distance speed racing, and the beautiful diving of the past-masters of the art is almost forgotten. The institution of a graceful diving championship, or the combination of it with the plunging championship, might greatly tend to remedy this neglect ; for, without doubt, the expert diver is a being to be envied. In Scotland a graceful diving championship has already been instituted. Some of the heights recorded are almost incredible. Many persons well remember the sensation caused by J. B. Johnson's dive from London Bridge in 187r, when the Daily Telegraph' issued its famous panegyric upon what afterwards turned out to be a mere exhibition. Johnson dived to rescue a drowning person, the said drowning person' being his brother Peter, who was nearly as good a swimmer as the famous J. B., and a capital stayer under water. But this feat of diving from London Bridge is nothing in comparison with the performances which were accomplished when the era of bridge jumping in America set in some ten or fifteen years later.
Deaths occurred, however, and the pastime of bridge-jumping came to an end. Open-water, and especially coast, swimmers are as a rule better divers than those whose practice is confined to baths. The luxury of a plunge from a good height into deep sea water surpasses that of all other kinds of diving, but it is not exactly owing to this that the coast swimmers are such expert divers. It is rather due to compulsion, that necessitous parent who brings about excellence in so many things. When there is no other way of getting in than from a height, a leap or a dive has to be taken, and the swimmer quickly gains enough confidence to change the leap into a dive. The inhabitants of the islands in the Pacific, whose living is largely gained on the water, are fearless divers as well as swimmers. From an early age they are brought up to the occupation of their forefathers, and work in the surf steels them against fear of any kind. In the ' Voyage of the " Sunbeam," ' Brassey thus describes some performances which she witnessed in Hawaii : Here we found a large party assembled, watching half the population of Hilo disporting themselves in, upon, and beneath the water. They climbed the almost perpendicular rocks on the opposite side of the stream, took headers, and footers, and siders from any height under five-and-twenty feet, dived, swam in every conceivable attitude, and without any apparent exertion, deep under the water, or upon its surface. But all this was only a preparation for the special sight we had come to see. Two natives were to jump from a precipice, too feet high, into the river below, clearing on their way a rock which projected some twenty feet from the face of the cliff, at about the same distance from the summit. Tho two men, tall, strong, and sinewy, suddenly appeared against the sky-line, far above our heads, their long hair bound back by a wreath of leaves and flowers, while another garland encircled their waists. Having measured their distance with an eagle's glance, they disappeared from our sight, in order to take a run and acquire the necessary impetus. Every breath was held for a moment, till one of the men reappeared, took a bound from the edge of the rock, turned over in mid-air, and disappeared feet foremost into the pool beneath, to emerge almost immediately, and to climb the sunny bank as quietly as if he had done nothing very wonderful. His companion followed, and then the two clambered up to the twenty feet projection, to clear which they had to take such a run the first time, and once more plunged into the pool below. The feat was of course an easier one than the first ; but still a leap of eighty feet is no light matter. A third native, who joined them in this exploit, gave one quite a turn as he twisted in his downward jump ; but he alsO alighted in the water feet foremost, and bobbed up again directly like a cork. He was quite a young man, and we afterwards heard that he had broken several ribs not more than a year ago, and had been laid up for six months in the hospital.