When the ship sank I was terribly frightened--because I cannot
swim far.
Story of Doctor Dolittle
"But, monsieur," said Musqueton, "I can't
swim; let me stay here."
Twenty Years After
When Kotick felt his skin tingle all over, Matkah told him he was learning the "feel of the water," and that tingly, prickly feelings meant bad weather coming, and he must swim hard and get away.
"In a little time," she said, "you'll know where to swim to, but just now we'll follow Sea Pig, the Porpoise, for he is very wise." A school of porpoises were ducking and tearing through the water, and little Kotick followed them as fast as he could.
Jungle Book
Do you suddenly get the delusion that you can't
swim? No, it can't be that, because you were doing all the swimming for the two of us just now.
The Man Upstairs and Other Stories
I reckoned then we should have eight hours to
swim before sunrise, an operation quite practicable if we relieved each other.
20000 Leagues Under The Sea
If, on the other hand, I
swim further in search of some shelving beach or harbour, a hurricane may carry me out to sea again sorely against my will, or heaven may send some great monster of the deep to attack me; for Amphitrite breeds many such, and I know that Neptune is very angry with me."
Odyssey
"Do you think you could
swim or fly as far as the island, Wendy, without my help?"
The Adventures of Peter Pan
He had never had to learn to swim, any more than he had had to learn to breathe.
This time, without reasoning it out, merely moving along the line of least resistance, which was to him the line of greatest comfort, he straightened out in the sea and continued so to swim as to remain straightened out.
Jerry of the Islands
We came into this creek in the evening, resolving to
swim on shore as soon as it was dark, and discover the country; but as soon as it was quite dark, we heard such dreadful noises of the barking, roaring, and howling of wild creatures, of we knew not what kinds, that the poor boy was ready to die with fear, and begged of me not to go on shore till day.
Robinson Crusoe
Some of the horses were drowned and some of the men; the others tried to
swim on, some in the saddle and some clinging to their horses' manes.
War and Peace
She wanted to
swim far out, where no woman had swum before.
Awakening and Selected Short Stories
He could not
swim, and the water was very deep; but still he lost no particle of that self-confidence and resourcefulness which were the badges of his superior being.
Tarzan of the Apes
But supplementary to this, it has hypothetically occurred to me, that as ordinary fish possess what is called a swimming bladder in them, capable, at will, of distension or contraction; and as the Sperm Whale, as far as I know, has no such provision in him; considering, too, the otherwise inexplicable manner in which he now depresses his head altogether beneath the surface, and anon
swims with it high elevated out of the water; considering the unobstructed elasticity of its envelop; considering the unique interior of his head; it has hypothetically occurred to me, I say, that those mystical lung-celled honeycombs there may possibly have some hitherto unknown and unsuspected connexion with the outer air, so as to be susceptible to atmospheric distension and contraction.
Moby Dick LXVIII CXXXIV