23 AUGUST 1890, Page 3

The Channel has been crossed by another swimmer, Mr. Davis

Dalton, an American, who swam the whole distance, or

almost the whole distance, between 4 p.m. on Sunday and 3 p.m. on Monday, on his back, with his arras clasped behind him. One account says that as he was nearing the English shore in a very exhausted state, he swam for a short time on his breast, but we are not aware whether that- is or is not accurate. The time taken was twenty-three hours, and the distance actually swum (owing to the fluctuations caused by the ebb and flow of the tide) was sixty miles, so that more than two and a half miles were swum on an average in every hour. It was a very dangerous and a very idle feat. Mr. Dalton, when asked by the Pall Mall interviewer, "Why did you do it ? " replied, "Well, for the sake of doing something that has never been done before,"—a very poor ambi- tion, and one which might have been achieved on much easier terms if he had not cared, as he certainly did care, to be watched, and have his doings reported by the newspaper press. The motive is pretty clear from the boast: "If I had been unsuccessful, I would never have come ashore," —a resolve for which we sincerely pity the man who made it. What a state of mind, to resolve on suicide rather than fail in a bit of useless ostentation ! And yet Mr. Dalton had a wife and children who had suffered terribly from the anxietywhich his silly bit of vanity had caused them.