Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1892-01-01
SWIMMING IN SALT LAKE.
Easy Enough to Float, but to Float Right
End Up, There's the Rub,

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End Up, There's the Rub.
During a visit to Salt Lake "enjoyed"
swim on a, summer afternoon, making
the trip from fown tosIake Point, the
Coney Island Of the region, on an excur-
SION train in company with Il number of
Mormons. The little railroad runs through
diversified tract, in which garden. farm,
rocky uplift and mud plain are oddly jum-
bled, the plain being spotted with tufts OF
pale and brstling sage brush that grows
on the rocky mountain country where
nothing else will. There is bathing pa
vlllon at Lake Point with fresh water
tanks, in which to rinse ones self after the
bath, but | elected to try a swim without
spectators; So walking southwark along
the shore for mile or so, found place
where the rounded rocks that formed the
semblance of beach We're not too numer-
Gus.
1t was trifie difficult to keep steady
footing in the water and at first attrib-
uted this to inequalities on the bottom,
but on getting where it was deeper found
that my legs had a disposition to come to
the top, and it was apparent that the diff
Guilty Of wading across arose from the
blloyancy that. the body has in SO dense q,
medium as this brine. When had waded
out so far that the water came up to my
neck l scaled bowlder and dived AS it
is my custom to open my eyes under water,
did so as soon as l was fairly immersed
In an instant it seemed as if vitriol had
been poured into them.
Sprlnging to an upright position as soon
as possible, tried to get the salt out of
them, but the more rubbed the more it
seemed to get in. Nature removed the
smart after while, by pouring through
the tear ducts enough of a milder so,-tion
of salt to clear the irritated cornea u the
fluid, and took pains not to let the water
into my eyes again. After that the bath
was more enjoyable, if only as new ex-
perience.
There was singular and unaccustomed
sense of lightness, and it was not difficult
to float high out of water either in a re-
Ginning or sitting posture; yet bather
who is not a swimmer will fare as badly
here as anywhere, for the head being heav-
Ter than the lower eXtremities, has ten
dency to sink, unless one has the skill to
keep it above the surface. To swimmer
there is no especial danger, unless he is
choked by the brine or blinded and con-
fused by it.
To float requires less exertion than in
the sea, slight motion of the hand being
sufficient to keep the body balanced even
ly, for one depends less for his buoyancy
on breathing than in ocean water On
striking out to swim was surprised at
splashing noise behind me, and discovered
that it was made by my own feet, for
was so high out of water that they went
into the air at every stroke. This lghtness
at one end of the body tends, as 1 have
said, to depress the other. but to one who
is used to swimming this is trife.
On emerging from the lake / found that
every inch of my skin was sparkling with
salt crystals, and though rubbed and
scres,,1s Il they were not so easily to be got
ridl1 MN -. srystalslnesharp enough
--t eSS create discomfort and to suggest an
undue intimacy with thistles. My hair
was full of them, and they even adhered
to my clothing, so that a vigorous shak-
ing of raiment and fresh water bath
were in order on reaching my hotel
When told the people in town of my
swim and the manner of it was laughed
at, and informed that it was not the cor
rect thing to swim except at bathing
pavilion, where one has fresh water to
shower away the salt that sticks to him.
Goldthwait's Geographical Magazine.