The Norfolk Virginian. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 186?-189?, 1896-08-15
nctter Than tho Surf.

III may seem nrcpoSteIouS to talk OF the
finest sea-batEins on earth a thousand
miles from the ocean. says tn ttahman,
but truth is no less truth because 1t APP
pears absurd. The sca-bath thing i'm Great
Salt Lake Intimately surpasscs anything of
the kind on either on the Atlantic or Pa
c!ilic coast The water contains many
times more salt and much more soda, sui
pher magnesium, chlorine, bromine and
potassium than any ocean water on the
glo,c. 1t Is powerful in medicinal virtues,
curing or benciiting many forms of rheu-
matisn, rheumatic Sout, dyspepsia. ncr-
Nous disorders ana cutaneouS diseases {;
and ii acts like magic on the hair of those
unfortunatrs whose tendencies arc to
baldheadcdnesS. 1t is prompt and pot
ent tonic and invigoraut Of body and mind.
ana there Is no end of fun In getting
acquainted with It's pGcuiaritics. y first
bath In II Is always ass good as II circus.
trek mule. The Specific gravity is but Il
trine less than that OF the Holy Land
Dead Sea, the actual figures with distilled
water as unity being. for The ocean. l.o27;
Tor Salt Lake. l.l0I. and for the Dead Sea
l.ll6. The human body will not and can
not sink in II, You can walk out in it
will stick UP out of it like a fishing cork
from the shoulders upward. You can sit
fathoms deep. Men lie on top of it with
their arms crossed under their heads and
smoke their cigars. Its buoyance is in
deScribablc and uniinaGinable.
Anyone can float upon ii at the first
trial; there is nothing to do but lie down
gently upon it-and float. But swim
4
ter. The moment you begin to
paddle your own mirth- provoking ex-
ercses ensuc. When your stick your
hands under to make stroke, your feet
decline TO stay anywhere but on top: and
when after an exciting tussle, you again
get them beneath the surface. your hisnds
| ny out with the splash and splitter Of a
half dozen Hutter wheels. If on account
| OF your brains being heavier than your
| heels, your chance to turn a somerSault
| and your head goes under, vuur heels;
| VIII pop up like a pair of frisky didapper
| ducks. You cannot keep more than ono
end OF yourself under the water at once.
but you soon learn how TO wrcstlc with
| it's novelties, and then 1t becomes "a
| thing or beauty and Il joy for" any sum
mer day. The water is delightful to the
skin, every sensation is celebrating. and
| one cannot help feeling in 1t like "a gilded
/ cork adrift in a jcwel-rimmed bowl OF
| champagne punch. In the sense of ItiXil-
| rious ease with which 1t envelopes the
| bather IL Is unriYaled on earth. The only
| approximation to II is in the phosphores-
| cent waters of the Mosquito Indian coast,
| The water does not freeze until the Their
| mometi.c mercury tumbles down TO
eighteen degrees above zero, or fourteen
| degrees below the ordinary freezing point.
| 1t Is as clear as crystal. with a bottom OF
snow-white sand. and small objects can
| be- distinctly seen ut depth of twenty
| feet. There is not fish or any other Iiv-
| ing thing in all the twenty-five hundred
or three thousand square miles of beaUti-
fui and mysterious waters, except the
yearly increasing swarms OF summer
bathers. Not shark of stlngarce Ia
Scane the timid swimmer or floater, not a
crab or crawiish to nip the toe of the
nervous wader nor a minnow or a frog. a
tadpo!e or a MISUNDERSTANDING that lives
moves, swims, crawls or wggles. II is
the ideal sea-bathng place of the world.