be obtained by floating on one's back--this being
the _condition_ of our performance. I continued my course on to
Santa Chiara, comprising the whole of the Grand Canal (besides the
distance from the Lido), and got out where the Laguna once more
opens to Fusina. I had been in the water, by my watch, without help
or rest, and never touching ground or boat, _four hours_ and
_twenty minutes_. To this match, and during the greater part of its
performance, Mr. Hoppner, the Consul-general, was witness, and it
is well known to many others. Mr. Turner can easily verify the
fact, if he thinks it worth while, by referring to Mr. Hoppner. The
distance we could not _accurately_ ascertain; it was of course
considerable.

"I crossed the Hellespont in one hour and ten minutes only. I am
now ten years older in time, and twenty in constitution, than I was
when I passed the Dardanelles, and yet two years ago I was capable
of swimming four hours and twenty minutes; and I am sure that I
could have continued two hours longer, though I had on a pair of
trowsers, an accoutrement which by no means assists the
performance. My two companions were also _four_ hours in the water.
Mengaldo might be about thirty years of age; Scott about
six-and-twenty.

"With this experience in swimming at different periods of life, not
only upon the SPOT, but elsewhere, of various persons, what is
there to make me doubt that Leander's exploit was perfectly
practicable? If three individuals did more than the passage of the
Hellespont, why should he have done less? But Mr. Turner failed,
and, naturally seeking a plausible reason for his failure, lays the
blame on the _Asiatic_ side of the strait. He tried to swim
directly across, instead of going higher up to take the vantage: he
might as well have tried to _fly_ over Mount Athos.

"That a young Greek of the heroic times, in love, and with his
limbs in full vigour, might have succeeded in such an attempt is
neither wonderful nor doubtful. Whether he _attempted_ it or _not_
is another question, because he might have had a small _boat_ to
save him the trouble.

"I am yours very truly,

"BYRON.

"P.S. Mr. Turner says that the swimming from Europe to Asia was
'the _easiest_ part of the task.' I doubt whether Leander found it