But the great difficulty is to maintain the equilib rium in question; to accomplish which nothing is so necessary as absence of fear, and the most com plete self-command. A person should have a firm and sufficient conviction that the body, if left to itself, naturally floats, and that violent and irregular motion and struggling have a direct tendency to destroy this natural position. Indeed, the same struggling and throwing of the limbs which we see persons have recourse to in dangerous cases in the water, would, if practised on land, deprive the body of the faculty of locomotion, or of retaining its erect posture. Every swimmer knows that by keeping his body perfectly quiescent and upright, and by throwing his head back, so as to rest on the surface, his face will remain entirely above the wa ter, and respiration will be as easy and free as if he were on land. It is mentioned, that when a sailor was thrown overboard, the captain, with great presence of mind, called out to him, " keep your hands down in the water." He obeyed the call; the head kept above the surface, and the due bal ance of the body was thus obtained. To acquire and to preserve this due balance of the body, the arms should indeed be extended laterally under the sur face of the water, with the legs separated, the one stretched forward, the other backward. This po sition being obtained, motion backward or forward, or swimming, is to be !camel gradually; indeed, it almost follows as a necessary consequence; and a very little practice will make a person a considera ble adept in the art. In swimming forward, the body must be kept a little oblique, though the less so the better. The truth is, that the best swim mers maintain in water an attitude almost as erect as when they walk or run on land. The motion is produced by the motion of the arms and legs, which are extended and drawn in alternately. In swim ming backward, the face requires to be uppermost, and while the motion forwards is made by the action of the arms and legs, the latter only is employed in backward motion, the hands being generally folded across the breast. There is yet another mode of swimming either backwards or forwards; and that is by treading as it is called, or by moving the feet only; by which a person seems to walk as on land.
In this mode, the body is nearly perpendicular, and the arms are generally folded, or the hands are clasped and held above water. " I know by expe rience," says Dr. Franklin, " that it is a great com fort to a swimmer, who has a considerable distance to go, to turn himself sometimes on his back, and to vary in other respects the means of procuring a progressive motion." Swimming on the back is also useful in cases of cramp in the leg,—an affec tion to which a person is often exposed, and which not unfrequently proves fatal. A good swimmer can easily resist the fatal effects of cramp, by turn ing immediately on his back and jerking the affect ed limb for a little in the air. But before recourse can be had to this remedy, one must be thoroughly devoid of fear, and be fully convinced that the natural tendency of the body is to float, it being lighter than the quantity of water it displaces. We may here observe, that in addition to the swimming back ward or forward, there are many other fanciful po sitions and motions adopted by persons who are masters of the art and completely devoid of fear.
In learning to swim, it may also he observed, re course is often had to corks, bladders, planks, &c. But it is perfectly evident that such expedients are unnecessary: they are only used for the purpose of giving confidence in the power of the water to sup port the body; and the confidence, as shown above, can be more easily and more effectually obtained otherwise. Practice, without any of the auxiliaries referred to, will have more effect in teaching to swim than any other expedient whatever.
To a novice in the art, it is almost incredible to what perfection swimming can be brought. A good swimmer can urge himself forward by each stroke a distance equal to the length of his body. There are various ways of recruiting the strength in water by changing the position; and thirst and hunger are less severely felt than on land, owing it is pro bable to the quantity of the bracing liquid imbibed by the pores of the body. Under such circum stances a good swimmer can advance at the rate of three miles an hour, and continue for two or three hours in water. This, however, it is evident, must depend much on the temperature of water and on the climate. Persons have been known to perform the extraordinary distance of thirty miles at a stretch; and it is recorded that Nicolo Pesce, the famous Neapolitan diver, performed the incre dible distance of fifty miles on the coast of Calabria. Nay, water had become so much like his native element that he is stated to have spent five succes sive days and nights in it with perfect impunity. Bernardi's pupils, on the eleventh day of their in struction, were able to accomplish an uninterrupt ed circuit of six miles.
Diving, or the power of descending either per pendicularly or obliquely under water, is a species of swimming to which we have not yet adverted. It is astonishing to what perfection it can be brought by practice. The inhabitants of Otaheite excel so much in this art, that when a nail is thrown into the sea, they can leap after it and catch it ere it gain the bottom. Pearls and shell fish, kc. are brought from the bottom of the sea by divers; and in ancient times divers were not unfre quently employed to destroy the ships of the ene my under water. Nor is it found to be a difficult feat. All good swimmers can dive less or more; but great correctness and eminence in it can be obtained only by daily practice. In springing from a height into the water, great precaution is re quired so to dispose the body as to avoid any un favourable concussion from the water. To prevent the body from receiving injury from this concus sion, the limbs should be kept firm together, the head protected by the hands clasped over it, so as to present a sharp edge, the body presenting the shape of an arrow, the hands and head entering first, the feet last. The eyes should always be kept open under water, by which every object can be discerned, and rocks and other interruptions avoided. For a very full account of this subject, we refer to the article DIVING.