be just as unlucky."

"We must do so, however," replied Manoel.

"Yes," continued Benito; "but suppose we do not find the body, can you
tell me how long it will be before it rises to the surface?"

"If Torres," answered Manoel, "had fallen into the water living, and
not mortally wounded, it would take five or six days; but as he only
disappeared after being so wounded, perhaps two or three days would be
enough to bring him up again."

This answer of Manoel, which was quite correct, requires some
explanation. Every human body which falls into the water will float if
equilibrium is established between its density and that of its liquid
bed. This is well known to be the fact, even when a person does not know
how to swim. Under such circumstances, if you are entirely submerged,
and only keep your mouth and nose away from the water, you are sure to
float. But this is not generally done. The first movement of a drowning
man is to try and hold as much as he can of himself above the water; he
holds up his head and lifts up his arms, and these parts of his body,
being no longer supported by the liquid, do not lose that amount of
weight which they would do if completely immersed. Hence an excess of
weight, and eventually entire submersion, for the water makes its way
to the lungs through the mouth, takes the place of the air which fills
them, and the body sinks to the bottom.

On the other hand, when the man who falls into the water is already dead
the conditions are different, and more favorable for his floating, for
then the movements of which we have spoken are checked, and the liquid
does not make its way to the lungs so copiously, as there is no attempt
to respire, and he is consequently more likely to promptly reappear.
Manoel then was right in drawing the distinction between the man who
falls into the water living and the man who falls into it dead. In the
one case the return to the surface takes much longer than in the other.

The reappearance of the body after an immersion more or less prolonged
is always determined by the decomposition, which causes the gases to
form. These bring about the expansion of the cellular tissues, the
volume augments and the weight decreases, and then, weighing less than
the water it displaces, the body attains the proper conditions for
floating.

"And thus," continued Manoel, "supposing the conditions continue
favorable, and Torres did not live after he fell into the water, if the
de