Page:Handbook for Boys.djvu/301

280 in salt water weighs less than in fresh water, and is consequently more readily carried. Training makes a small boy the equal or superior of an untrained boy much larger and of greater strength, and the way to learn to carry a drowning person is to carry a boy who is not drowning to get used to handling the weights. A little struggle now and then lends realism

to the work and increase the skill of the scout candidate for a life saver's rating. Speed swimming for itself alone is a very selfish sport so that the scout should devdop his ability to make it generally useful to others.

Floating

After the breast stroke is learned, floating on the back for rest and swimming on the back, using feet only for propulsion, leaving the hands free to hold a drowning person, should be learned. This can be readily acquired with a little practice, carrying the hands on the surface of the water arms half bent, with the elbows close to the sides at the waist line. To carry a man this way the hands are placed at either side of the