Chapter 2 



THE FIRST DIVERS 



IF WE have a deep abiding interest in anything, if keen 

 curiosity leads to knowledge and this to absorption 

 in some phase of our little earthly world, then the 

 development, the evolution of the thing sooner or later 

 claims our attention. If one were a lawyer one would wish 

 to trace the rise of Greek and Roman laws and those of 

 early Egypt; if we enjoy chopping down trees we should 

 learn all there is to know about the first stone axes of our 

 cave-dwelling ancestors. 



The study of life under sea holds, at present, the heart 

 of my mental interest, and the physical means of getting 

 at my subject has taxed everything of ingenuity I could 

 bring to bear. I peer through water glasses and rubber- 

 bound goggles, holding my breath while I grope about 

 the shallows for organic treasures; I don a helmet and 

 walk about ten fathoms beneath the surface; and finally 

 I have been able to look and think, while yet a half mile 

 down in a water-tight bell or bathysphere. The origin of 

 all these methods in the minds of men of the distant past 

 is full of fascination, but first we must see if our ideas 

 have been anticipated by the so-called lower animals. 



Frogs, penguins, and dolphins all dive as we do, unaided 



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