Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1896-01-30

Gin" is to make two or three successive
stations by swimming and diving so as to
escape being touched byany player OF he
"out" party, who are the pursuers. This
game requires a good deal of fnessing
talent, to mislead you opponent in regard
to the direction in which you mean to
dive. More than this, you must be able
to hold your breat h for a hundred seconds
or more, or you will have to come to the
surface to elbow" like whale, at some
critical position, and so lose your game,
rs have lost it many time.
Sometimes the native children fix a
long pole so as to project from the bank
over deep water; along this they chase
one another to the outermost end, leap
ing in regular succession into the water.
Leaping from high, perpendicular cliffs
is favorite and daring sport with the
men. They choose place where the
water is not less than fifteen or twenty
feet in depth at the foot of the cliffs;
then. taking rousing run, to get fairly
under way-llke Washington Irving's
Dutchman, who started to jump over the
mountain-they bound far into the air
from the edge of the cliff.
As the leaper falls from the dizzy height
sometimes a hundred feet by measure
ment-toward the water, he bends him
self almost double, as in wanton muscu-
lar play; but just before striking the
water, he partially straightens himself so
that his whole body is slightly curved
forward at the moment of the plunge,
and the feet are, perhaps, foot in adj
vance of perpendicular line let fall from
the head. He strikes the water without
a splash, entering it with that quick, dull
chuck that a smooth pebble makes when
thrown forcibly into water, and at an
angle with the surface, so nicely calcu
lated, that he is actually brought to the
fall. With his body curved as I have de-
scribed, he shoots through the arc of a
circle under the water, and after two or
three seconds comes up, feet foremost.
The first thing you see of him is his toes,
emerging from the water fifteen or TWEEN
ty feet in front OF the place where he
went under. No athletic feat is more
The sensations experienced by one who
falls from great height have not, l
think, been described in print. A singu-
lar good fortune having made the writer
OF this article an expert in leaping in
Hawaiian manner, he is able to give some
account Of them. Until you are thor
oughly practised in the leap, you have
u ;I4I 81; 1t,
the matter before you risk it. You first
dive at the foot of the cliff, and satisfy
yourself that there is sufficient depth Of
water. You watch one after another OF
your companions, as they bound in long
parabolic curves from the edge of the
cliff; but it requires some nerve to throw
yourself deliberately from high pleci-
pice into mid-air.
The solid ground seems a much more
comfortable place. At last, nerving your
self, you run and leap. Instantly you
have feeling OF floating rather than of
falling-such feeling, | suppose, as
bird has when rapidly alightng from an
elevated flight. There is no sense Of
accelerated motion as you fall; but you
ltel your Hdlr DlON IL upward Dy HeTce
current of air. This does not, however,
in the least embarrass your breath hing.
The notion that people have their breath
taken away" in falling from a height is
erroneous.
In an instant comes the plunge; and
you must enter the water in exactly the
right position, or it will hurt you almost
like the solid earth. If you enter it with
a splash, you meet its resistance too sud
denly, and may be famed or stunned
The greatest leaper, Sam Patch, thus lost
his life. Had he possessed Hawaiian skill
and sober head, he would .never have
lost his position while falling, as in his
last leap at Genessee Falls. Could an is
lander have taught him how to come out
toes foremost, he might have been alive
and leaping at the present day. You,
wiser than he, come safely to the surface,
swim ashore, and prepare for another
leap. DR.. T. NJ. Coan.