operation. The bulky helmet weighs nearly 70 pounds and has a satcty- 

 valve where the air hose connects, so that even should the diver cut his 

 hose, some air will remain trapped within the helmet. Enough, we hope, 

 to keep him alive while he climbs back to the surface. Amidships is the 

 air-pump, a manually operated 2-cylinder afTair, which requires consider- 

 able dexterity upon the part of the pumper as he works the long handle 

 from side to side, the constant heaving of the sea tending to throw him 

 forever off balance. The long coils of air-hose are cumbersome and ever in 

 the way until finally fed out to the diver. 



With a glass- bottomed bucket we locate the wreck and drop anchor. 

 Down goes the descending- line, a rope with heavy weight attached, 

 dangling just clear of the bottom. You're the first down, so jump off the 

 stern and hold the descending-line firmly while someone drops the helmet 

 over your head. Raise your right arm and the tender will make a loop of 

 hose around your shoulder so that if he desires to bring you up suddenly 

 he won't haul in a helmet, but no diver. The helmet weighs a seeming 

 ton at the surface so try to keep it balanced, for if you lean too far back 

 its weight appears about to break your neck. Some one thrusts a hammer 

 and crow-bar into your hand and you hastily secure both, in some fashion, 

 under your belt. The pump tender is giving you air and signals you off so 

 you begin the descent. Down you go, very slowly hand over hand, on the 

 rope. How dead your ears suddenly feel! The only sound in the universe 

 is that thumping of the valve in your helmet. Rhythmically it goes on, 

 almost as if you were listening to your own heart beating. The helmet no 

 longer feels heavy, now you are light and free and the slightest effort is 

 sufficient to make you go up or down on the descending-line. At a depth 

 of 20 feet you feel an increasing dull pain in your ears. Don't worry, but 

 climb back a yard or so on the line and swallow a few times. You must 

 force some of the air under pressure into the tubes leading to the inner ear 

 so that the ear drum has an equal pressure on both sides. Ah, that feels 

 better, pain's gone, so keep swallowing and drop down the rest of the way 

 more slowly. 



At last, like a figure in slow-motion, you feel your knees give slightly 

 and alone you stand on the ocean's floor. For a moment you'll fondle the 

 descending- line and hesitate to give up that last tangible connection with 

 the world above, for as you gaze about, you realize that this is a different 

 world, far stranger than anything you had ever dreamed. Myriads of living 

 creatures, seemingly forever in effortless motion, lend an air of unreality to 

 this strange fairyland. In the dim distance the great pink sea-fans sway 

 slowly to and fro, for all the world like trees in a breeze, but a gentler, 

 softer breeze than the earth above has ever known. The uncanny coloring 

 is strange and vivid. Objects close by are weirdly tinted with a suffusion 

 of pale green, those just beyond have a faint bluish aura enveloping them, 

 while at a still greater distance the water seems to shroud everything with 

 a heavy veil of deep indigo. The surface, far above, is an ever undulating 

 mirror which reflects sparkling but inconsistent patches of light upon the 

 clear sandy bottom. 



(33) 



