Page:Art of swimming rendered easy.pdf/19

 To proceed therefore in that case safely, you must keep at a distance, as ten or twelve feet off; your best way will be not to lay hold of him till he is quite sunk down, and lost the use of his sight; and if you have observed the place where he is, you may endeavour to take hold of him by the hair, and so draw him on your back, taking care always that he does not lay hold of otherwise hamper you. You may thus draw him to some shallow place: or if you have any string or rope about you, leave one end on the shore in the hands of your companions, and fasten the other to him, and so let them draw him out.

You are not to imagine that this way is difficult, for it is so far from it, that several who never knew how to swim before, by practising it by chance, have kept themselves above water. To swim like a dog, you must lift up and depress one hand successively after another, and do the same also with your feet, only with this difference, that with your hands you must draw the water towards you, and with your feet drive it from you ; begin with the right hand and right foot; and afterwards with the left hand and foot, and so suecessivelysuccessively [sic]. This way of swimming is very useful for disengaging yourself from weeds under water.