onds till he gets quiet, for
it is sheer madness to take hold of a man when he is struggling in the
water, and if you do you run a great risk.

4. Then get close to him and take fast hold of the hair of his head,
turn him as quickly as possible on to his back, give him a sudden
pull, and this will cause him to float, then throw yourself on your
back also and swim for the shore, both hands having hold of his hair,
you on your back, and he also on his, and of course his back to your
stomach. In this way you will get sooner and safer ashore than by any
other means, and you can easily thus swim with two or three persons;
the writer has even, as an experiment, done it with four, and gone
with them forty or fifty yards in the sea. One great advantage of this
method is that it enables you to keep your head up, and also to hold
the person's head up you are trying to save. It is of primary
importance that you take fast hold of the hair, and throw both the
person and yourself on your backs. After many experiments, it is
usually found preferable to all other methods. You can in this manner
float nearly as long as you please, or until a boat or other help can
be obtained.

5. It is believed there is no such thing as a _death grasp_; at least,
it is very unusual to witness it. As soon as a drowning man begins to
get feeble and to lose his recollection, he gradually slackens his
hold until he quits it altogether. No apprehension need, therefore, be
felt on that head when attempting to rescue a drowning person.

6. After a person has sunk to the bottom, if the water be smooth, the
exact position where the body lies may be known by the air bubbles,
which will occasionally rise to the surface, allowance being, of
course, made for the motion of the water, if in a tide way or stream,
which will have carried the bubbles out of a perpendicular course in
rising to the surface. Oftentimes a body may be regained from the
bottom, before too late for recovery, by diving for it in the
direction indicated by these bubbles.

7. On rescuing a person by diving to the bottom, the hair of the head
should be seized by one hand only, and the other used in conjunction
with the feet in raising yourself and the drowning person to the
surface.

8. If in the sea, it may sometimes be a great error to try to get to
land. If there be a strong "outsetting tide" and you are swimming
either by yourself or having hold of a person who cannot swim, then
get on