HOW A SKILFUL SWIMMER MAY EASILY BE BROWNED.

Inangahua Times, 20 December 1880, Page 2

HOW A SKILFUL SWIMMER MAY EASILY BE BROWNED.

-♦— We read frequently of the drowning of good swimmers, who suddenly aink ia the water without nny apparent cause. The commoa explanation of auch an aeeidenfc ia that tba swimmer is seized with cramp ; bm an fiaglisb naval officer offers a different solution of the phenomenon. He bases his theory on hia own experience. Ilia ship waa lying fora long time off Aden harbor, and it was the practice of cricketing parties to swim from the vessel to the shore in the evening, and hare their clothes sent in a small boat. Of course there was a race to ses who would get to the beach firat v The writer, after a sharp struggle for the lead, opened his mouth to breathe, and 80 me of tfee spary flying in the wind got iti*O bis throat and took the passage down tne trachea, ' I could neither,' be- says..* get any breath in nor our. and I soon began to feel I was dying on the top of the water. There must have been a dozen men close to me, but I <sou!d not speak, much les3 call to them. I went on swimming for the shore. Jq about nVe seconds my senseß began to leave me. I ceased swimming, and my Jeg.s went down, •md luckily for me, they touched the bottom. A violent jimp'hel[)ed rae to coush up the drop of water. I staggered on shore, and fell quite exhausted on the beach, much to the surprise of all the men With me, 1 Ie ■s the opinion of* the gentleman that many fatal accidents to swimming are due simpfy to a drop of iv the wiudpipe.