"If, therefore, a person unacquainted with swimming, falling into the water, could have presence of mind sufficient to avoid struggling and plunging, and to let the body take this natural position, he might continue long safe from drowning, till, perhaps, help should come; for as to the clothes, their additional weight, when immersed, is very inconsiderable, the water supporting them, though when he comes out of the water he would find them very heavy indeed. "But, as I said before, I would not advise you or any one to depend on having this presence of mind on such an occasion, but learn fairly to swim, as I wish all men were taught to do in their youth: they would on many occasions be the safer for having that skill, and on many more, the happier, as being free from painful apprehensions of danger, to say nothing of the enjoyment in so delightful and wholesome an exercise. Soldiers, particularly, should all be taught to swim; it might be of particular use either in surprising an enemy or saving themselves, and if I had any boys to educate, I would prefer those schools in which an opportunity was afforded for acquiring so advantageous an art, which when once learned, is never forgotten. "I know by experience, that it is a great comfort to a swimmer who has a great distance to go, to turn himself sometimes on his back, and to vary in other respects the means of procuring a progressive motion. "When he is seized with the cramp in the leg, the method to drive it away, is to give the parts affected a sudden, vigorous and violent shock, which he may do in the air as he swims on his back. "During the great heats in summer, there is no danger in bathing, however warm he may be, in rivers which have been thoroughly warmed by the sun; but to throw one's-self into cold spring water when the body has been heated by exercise in the sun, is an imprudence which may prove fatal. I once knew an instance of four young men, who, having worked at harvest in the heat of the day, with a view of refreshing themselves, plunged into a spring of cold water; two died upon the spot, a third next morning, and the fourth recovered with great difficulty. A copious draught of cold water, in similar circumstances, is frequently attended with the same effect in North America.