CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL
CONTENTS
A SWIM EXTRAORDINARY.
WOOL FROM PINE-TREES.
CHAMBERS'S LIFE AND WORKS OF BURNS.
VISIT TO THE COPPER-WORKS OF SWANSEA.
THE KING OF YVETOT.
RELATIONSHIPS.
THIRST IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS.
AN AUSTRALIAN MISS.
THE DAY OF REST.
'THE BIRKBECK MAGAZINE.'
CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'SINFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c.
| No. 458. New Series. | SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1852. | Price 1½d. |
A SWIM EXTRAORDINARY.
I have been all my life a sort of amphibious animal, having, like manyan old Roman, learned to swim long before I had learned to read. Thebounding backs of the billows were my only rocking-horse when I was achild, and dearly I loved to ride them when a fresh breeze wasblowing. I rarely tired in the water, where I often amused myself forhours together. I grew up with such a liking for the exercise, that Ihave never been able to forego the opportunity for a swim when itoffered; and a daily bath has been for a long course of years asnecessary to me as my daily food. The exercise of swimming has beenthrough life my chief pleasure and my only medicine—a never-failingrestorative from weakness and weariness, and, what may appear strangeto some readers, from the effects of irritation, anxiety, andmortification as well.
This accomplishment, however, once led me into a strange adventure. Iwas engaged in a rather extensive commercial tour through the centralkingdoms of Europe. I had crossed the Hungarian frontier about themiddle of the day, after being much annoyed and chafed by amultiplicity of delays and extortions; and at length, hot and wearied,arrived at B—— late in the evening. As soon as I caught sight of theDanube in the distance, I resolved that the first thing I would doafter getting housed and refreshed by a few hours' sleep, should be toenjoy the luxury of a leisurely swim in that noble river. With thisview, passing through the town, I put up at a small but decentgasthof which stood upon a patch of rising ground close upon themargin of the stream; and having first seen to the comfort of myhorse, which was well-nigh knocked up with the day's journey, and nextattended to my own, I retired to rest at an early hour,