Swimming Animals.

Otago Witness, Issue 2857, 16 December 1908, Page 76

Swimming Animals.

Although the poiyer of swimming - is a natural faculty with"quadrtipeds, yet it" has •j been proved- that iiumarr ■ beings- have I greater swimming powers than most of the lower asimals. Xlie recent performance of Burgees proves, as an exhibition of endurance, that man can. now swim 60 miles without a stop. The onl}- land animal known ttf have even approached within a few miles of this j peiformance i£ the American black bear, ' but tile American deer bometimes swims 12 or 14 miles at a stretch. j The boree can ewiiu for miles without ] being exhausted, and shows a wonderful ] instinct in choosing the best available '. landing-place. j i Bears and moles swim well, but bats and j ' monkeys are helpless in the water. The common mouse and the field mouse can j , only ewiin a few yards ; they drown in the J act of swimming. j Yet rats swim splendidly. Lions and j tigers can swim well, although only of '> necessity will they do so. Very re mar k- , able indeed is the fact that, whereas the ; rabbit cannot swim at all, the hare is an ' excellent swimmer.