Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 October 1900 — HOW ANIMALS SWIM. [ARTICLE]

HOW ANIMALS SWIM.

ALMOST ALL ANIMALS AT HOME IN THE WATER. Many Of Them Display Wonderful Endurance—The Rodents Are All Good ' Divers—Ruminants Are Nearly All Good Swim mere—Camel an Exception. Among what are generally considered purely land animals there Is no finer swimmer than the polar bear. This .grand creature, with which everybody Is nowadays familiar, spends more than half his time in the water, performing immense journeys across the polar wastes from continent to continent. she distance he travels from the pack ice to the maiu coasts over open water are at times astounding, considering that the body is all the time immersed in freezing water, known Id human beings as the greatest deterrent to all long swims. The most Interesting family of swimmers is perhaps the rodents. It may be taken as a general rule that if one member of a family is a good swimmer all the rest are, but not so with regard to the group in question, for it embraces not only such fine performers as beavers, rats, mice and their allies, but such regular land lubbers as squirrels, hares and rabbits. All the good swimmers among the rodents are also expert divers and are able, moreover, to raise or depress the body in the water at will. When swimming at ease and unsuspicious of danger the water line passes across the mouth, the middle of the cheek and the shoulder, disclosing on the surface rather more than one-third of the whole body, and, though the root of the tail is seen, the tail itself is generally under the water, excepting when the animal Is quite stationary. About rats I need hardly speak, so familiar to everybody are their habits. The common house rat, when he takes to living on river banks, is almost as much at home In the water as his cousin, the water vole, and the same thing may be said of mice, notably the water shrew. Among the indifferent swimmers of this family the squirrel claims attention. Many observers are of the opinion that the squirrel does not swim at all, but that by hopping on to a floating piece of bark and using his tail as a sail he crosses the widest rivers. This is a very pretty story and one with a certain amount of truth in it (I have myself seen squirrels floating down stream in this way), but that he often attains his object thus I very much doubt. Twice, while fishing In the Tay, I saw squirrels actually Swimming across the river, and their movements struck me as so peculiar that I afterward experimented with them in the water. They were evidently alarmed At the thought of trusting themselves to so treacherous an element, and, at starting, some of them sprang into the air, as if inclined rather to fly than to swim, but once well afloat they paddled away with such extreme rapidity as to exhaust themselves within a few minutes at most. In this action the head aud shoulders are carried very high out of the water, while the rest of the body sinks deep beneath the surface—in direct contrast to the pose of hares and rabbits, which, in swimming, are, like an 111-ballasted ship, “down by the bead.” Like the squirrels, these two animals show great timidity in the water, and naturally so, for their heads are so low and sterns so high that the slightest ripple on the surface would send their noses under water and so drown them, unless they at once returned to land. In perfectly still water, however, they can both swim considerable distances. Nearly all the ruminants are excellent swimmers, and all take freely to the water, except perhaps the wild sheep and the camels. Of pigs it is commonly reported that so queerly fashioned are they that If they attempt to sw!m they cut their throats with their fore feet, but this Is only an old wife's fable. Whether wild or tame, they are all good swimmers, though owing to the shortness of their legs they just touch their throats with their fore feet, and beat the water very high. Many of the islands of the southern seas are now inhabited by wild pigs, which are the descendants of those which have swum ashore, sometimes great distances, from wrecked vessels. Camels cannot swim. They are very buoyant, but ill balanced, and their heads go under water. They can, however, be taught to swim rivers with the aid of goatskins or Jars fastened under their necks. During the Beluchistan expedition of 1808 the camels were lowered Into the Rea from the ships and their drivers, plunging overboard, clambered upon the rump of their charges, causing the animals’ heads to come up, and thus assisted they were successfully piloted nshore. Several animals, such ns hedgehogs and hats, who would at first glance be considered natation, are in reality quite respectable performers.