Mr. J. B. Johnson, who calls himself the champion swimmer,
and really swims quite as well as an average South Sea Islander, on Saturday attempted to swim from Dover to Calais. He jumped into the sea at 10.40 a.m., and swam strongly for an hour and five minutes, in which time he made nearly seven miles in total distance, though not of course in distance from the shore. At the end of that time, though he was not tired, the circulation had begun to fail in his lower limbs, he was obliged to have recourse to stimulants, and a surgeon who, was on board the steamer which accompanied him directed him to desist. It is quite conceivable, in spite of the absurd farce performed off London Bridge, that Mr. Johnson believed himself able to cross the Channel, and was not aware of the grave obstacle- presented by the temperature of the water. The difficulty is na- b) swim twenty-one miles, or even thirty, for nearly that distance is known to have been done in the South Seas, but to keep up the circulation for ten or twelve hours in water so much below the temperature of the body.
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