of my trying to do so, and that it was only kind of them to advise me not to, as the effort could only result in disappointment and loss of time. I might, if I stopped there on the water long enough, die of starvation or old age; or I might, in the case of a fog coming on, be run down by a boat and killed that way; but sink and be drowned, they assured me, I could not be. For a man to sink when lying on his back on the water was an utter impossibility: they worked this out on a slate, and made it quite clear to me, so that I saw it for myself.
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And day after day, I would go down to the sea and place myself on the water in that position in which, as I have explained, it was contrary to the laws of nature that I should sink, and invariably and promptly go straight down to the bottom, head foremost!
Then there is that theory of the power of the human eye, and how it will subdue cows and other wild beasts. I tried that once. I was crossing a field near a farmhouse at which I was staying; and, just when I had nearly reached the middle, and was about three hundred yards from the handiest fence, I became aware of the fact that I was being regarded with quite an embarrassing amount of attention by an active and intelligent-looking cow. I took it at first as a compliment, and thought that I had mashed the cow; but when she slewed her head round so as to bring the point of her left horn exactly opposite the pit of my stomach, and began to sling her tail round and round in a circle, and foam at the mouth, I concluded that there must be something more in her mind than a mere passing fancy!
