DIVING NYMPHS AND SEA LIONS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XI, Issue 63, 2 March 1921, Page 3

DIVING NYMPHS AND SEA LIONS.

A NOVEL CONTEST. Here in New Zealand just now great and well-directed attention is being paid to swimming, and we have lately had numerous exhibitions of proficiency in the art of natation—for in its more graceful developments it may quite appropriately be called an art. But the various contests to which wc have been treated are confined to human candidates. At the Coliseum, in Loudon, something new is being provided in the way of competitions between a couple of lady divers and a couple of captive sea-iions. In referring to this novel feature in the Coliseum entertainment the'London “Tinies” says:— In writing recently of performing animals wo exempted the case of sea lions from the general contention that most tricks are not developments, but violations of natural instincts, learned only when instinctive reluctance had been overcome by a stronger stimulus. 1 he performance that is being given at the Coliseum this week by “Winston’s Water Lions and Diving Nymphs” seems to bear out the contention, for the sea lions aro given a chance of showing how much superior to the human being they are in their natural element. Two accomplished women swimmers and divers perforin a number of clever and intricate evolutions in the water. In every case, one of the sea lions repeats the performance with occasionally, one suspects, a smile at the human being’s boasted superiority. If a woman blows bubbles while reposing gracefully at the bottom of the tank, the sea lion does so for a much longer period and then opens its mouth to show that there is no deception. If a woman dives from a height of 20* or 30 feet, the sea lion at once shambles up after her and does the same thing with very nearly as much grace. The act is a remarkably interesting one, but we do not know which to admire the more, the patience of the women in emulating the sea lions or that of the sea lions in emulating the women.