THE IMPENETRABLE SEA 



after years — he had been working on it since his pre- 

 war skin-diving days, when (as Gunner Cousteau) he, 

 Dumas and Taillez had formed a diving team. They had 

 hunted fish with slingshots, spears and rubber-propelled 

 harpoons, wearing no better underwater equipment than 

 goggles. 



On one occasion they gave Professor Piccard a shock. 

 The adventurous three had watched the Professor descend 

 on an experimental dive in his bathyscaphe. They waited 

 until he had evidently reached a good depth, and then 

 went down after him, wearing their goggles and foot fins 

 and with a board, carried by one of them. They came 

 upon the bathyscaphe at a depth of sixty feet and 

 hovered for a few seconds in front of the observation 

 window, displaying the board, on which these words 

 were painted: ''Come up when you want to!" Piccard 

 said afterwards that it was one of the greatest surprises in 

 all his underwater experiences. 



Before the perfection of Cousteau's Aqualung only 

 highly-trained experts could explore the coastal waters 

 to any depth. But now, with but little cost and very little 

 training, any swimmer can explore the waters, diving 

 among the wonders of the sea unhampered by encumber- 

 ing pipes or lines. The Aqualung wearer has no trouble 

 with his eardrums, which are exposed to equal pressures 

 — air within and water without. The air supply is 

 adjusted to the diver's normal breathing rhythm. Control 

 of the breathing can conserve the air, but it is never 

 wasted in any case. 



Seeing and breathing are provided for by separate 

 devices. A mask covering part of the face, including the 

 nose (to equalize pressure within the mask) is fitted with 

 a glass eyeshield. The mouthpiece for breathing, held in 

 the jaws, is separated from the mask for this reason : if 

 the glass of the latter is broken the diver does not risk 

 suffocation as with older types of mask. The diver in an 

 Aqualung can breathe comfortably in any position, even 



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