THE FISHMEN 



waters and Kelvin's piano-wire. Those early men had 

 lines made from creepers or grasses, only a few score 

 fathoms in length, which they lowered slowly into the 

 water and withdrew as carefully again. Kelvin's inven- 

 tion enabled navigators to unreel six hundred feet of wire 

 in a minute, and to rewind it almost as rapidly. 



The devices used by fishmen in these modern times are 

 innumerable. Goggles were among the earliest modern 

 inventions. They were quickly followed by extensions of 

 them into masks of all kinds, one of the latest in use being 

 the full-face type, with a snorkel built into it : a breathing 

 device consisting of a tube, generally plastic, leading from 

 the mask to a position above the head. With all the 

 smaller goggles and masks (without compressed air 

 supply or oxygen) the wearer has to hold his breath 

 every time he looks down into the water. Using the 

 snorkel mask there is no feeling of air-starvation — the 

 breath is held only when preparing to dive. A valve 

 attachment closes the tube immediately on diving and 

 opens it again on returning to the surface. 



All kinds of fins have been invented — some with closed 

 heels, for instance, for protection against sharp coral. 

 Swimmers can travel faster with ''web-feet" fins, without 

 using their arms, than if they were using all four limbs 

 without fins. 



There are also many types of under-water gun. The 

 original ''spear-gun" used in the Pacific was a simple 

 contrivance — -just a piece of steel tube or bamboo about 

 a foot long, with a set of rubber bands attached to one 

 end, often taken from an old inner tube. The "spear" 

 might be any piece of metal with a barb on one end — 

 perhaps an old bicycle spoke. The gun was "loaded" by 

 passing the "spear" into it. All that was needed to fire 

 it was to pull back the elastic, holding the end of the 

 "spear" in it, and then — let fly. 



There are all kinds of spear-guns, some spring- 

 powered developments of the elastic-band type, and more 



169 F* 



