swimming on the
surface.

BERNARDI'S SYSTEM.

_Upright swimming._--This is a new mode of swimming, introduced by
Bernardi, a Neapolitan, and consists in adopting the accustomed motion
of the limbs in walking. It gives great freedom to the hands and arms,
affords a greater facility of breathing and of sight. It is true, that a
person swimming in an upright position, advances more slowly, but as the
method is more natural, the person is able to continue his course
longer, and can remain with greater safety in the water.

The first object with Bernardi, is to enable the pupil to float in an
upright position, and in this the head is made the great regulator of
all the motions. After having been by practice familiarised to keep his
equilibrium, a variety of motions are gradually practised, until the
swimmer is enabled at every stroke to urge himself forward a distance
equal to the length of his body, and to travel, without fatigue, at
least three miles an hour, and to continue this without great fatigue
for many hours. Bernardi, speaking of the success of his practice, says,
"Having been appointed to instruct the youths of the Royal Naval Academy
at Naples in the art of swimming, a trial of the pupils took place in
the presence of a number of persons assembled on the shore, and under
the inspection of authorities appointed to witness and report upon the
experiment. A twelve-oared boat attended the progress of the pupils,
from motives of precaution. They swam so far out in the bay, that at
length the heads of the young men could with difficulty be discerned
with the naked eye; and the Major-General of Marine, Fortguerri, for
whose inspection the exhibition was attended, expressed serious
apprehensions for their safety. Upon their return to the shore, the
young men, however, assured him that they felt so little exhausted, as
to be willing immediately to repeat the exertion."

After devoting a month to the investigation of Bernardi's plan, the
Neapolitan government state in their official report--

"That it has been established by the experience of more than a hundred
persons of different bodily constitutions, that the human body is
lighter than water, and, consequently, will float by nature, and that
the art of swimming must be acquired to render that privilege useful.

"That Bernardi's system is new, in so far as it is founded on the
principle of husbanding the strength, and rendering the power of
recruiting it easy.