erect position, and has to adopt movements of the limbs to which he
has not previously been accustomed. Still, the specific gravity of the
human body, particularly when the cavity of the chest is filled with
air, is lighter than that of water, in proportion to the obesity of
the individual, stout people being able to float more easily than
those of spare build. There are thousands and thousands of boys in
this vast country who have never seen big rivers, like the Ohio and
Mississippi, or beheld the broad ocean, with its white, sandy beach
and small, quiet bays, or the great blue lakes, and whose only chance
to swim is in the deep holes of some small stream, a mill-pond or
small lake.

Beginners are just as liable to meet with serious accidents in such
places as in the large rivers or the salt sea. For it must be
remembered it is not the width of the water, but its depth, that
troubles a beginner.

HOW TO LEARN

Beyond the practice that makes for perfection, the only other thing
necessary for swimming is _confidence_. Every man, woman, and child--
even if never in the water before--could keep afloat if he, she or it
had the required confidence, but as they have not this confidence, the
question is: "How can it be acquired?"

There is an old saying, "Familiarity breeds contempt." While, like
many other home-made proverbs, this is only partly true, there can be
no doubt but that familiarity makes for confidence. The new recruit
may be as strong and brave as the veteran soldier, but the lack of
experience makes him nervous and unreliable under a fire which the