WITH HELMET AND HOSE 73 



realization of the futility of such a brief, blurred 

 glimpse. 



I inspected a number of diver's outfits one day 

 and found nothing tempting in the enormously 

 cumbersome suits. Then, just before I sailed on 

 the Arcturus, I bought my helmet. The para- 

 phernalia accompanying it were so simple that I 

 doubted its efficiency, but at least it was an effort 

 in the right direction of investigation of a new 

 world. 



During the first part of the Arcturus adventure 

 the sea was too rough to think of using it, even a 

 few feet below the gangway, but when we moored 

 close under the cliffs of Darwin Bay at Tower 

 Island — our old Galapagos anchorage — I brought 

 up the box from the hold and unlimbered the div- 

 ing apparatus. The helmet was a big, conical 

 affair of copper, made to rest on the shoulders, with 

 a hose connection on the right side and two oblique 

 windows in front. Around the bottom extended 

 a flange on which four flattened pieces of lead were 

 hung, each weighing ten pounds. This made a 

 total weight of sixty pounds for the entire thing. 

 The hose, which was of the ordinary common or 

 garden variety, was attached at one end to the 

 helmet and at the other to a double-action automo- 

 bile pump, which screwed to a board, and was oper- 

 ated by a long iron lever, pushed back and forth. 

 Almost at once we elaborated a method of opera- 

 tion which was so simple and satisfactory, even to 

 the slightest details, that no change was necessary 

 after weeks and months of use. 



