HOW GOOD SWIMMERS DROWN

Evening Star, Issue 5589, 5 February 1881, Page 2 (Supplement)

HOW GOOD SWIMMERS DROWN

When a good swimmer is drowned, the general surmise is thai; he w»a seiasd with the cramp. An English naval offijer offers a different solution of the phenotnenen. Ho bases his theory on hia own experience. Hi* ship was lying for a long time off Aden harbor, and it was the practice «f cricketing parties to swim from the vessel to the shore in the evening, baying their clothes sent in a smsdl boat. Of course there vraa a race to see who would get t* tho beach first. The writer, niter a sharp struggle for the lead, opened hia meutll to breathe, and some »f the spray flying in the wind got into hia throat and took the passage down tie ttaohea "I ccrald neither," he sav-s, " get any breath in nor out, and I soon began to feel I was dying on the top of the w»-*or. There moat bav» been a dr-zm men close to me, bub I oonld not apeak, mnoh lees call to them. I went on swimming for the shore. In about five seconds ray eenees b«gan to leave me. I ceaeed swimming and my legs went down, and, luckily for me they touohed the bottom. A violent jump helped me to congh np the drop of water. I staggered on shore, and fell quite exhausted on the beaoh, mneh to the surprise of all the men with me." It is the opinion of this gentleman that many fatal accidents to swimmers are due simply to a drop of water in the wind-