l6 THE FIRST DIVERS 



So I, in my relatively crude bathysphere, sustaining life 

 for a few hours only by most careful forethought and 

 ejQfort, must appear but a bungling amateur in comparison 

 with the submarine mastery of the water spider (Fig. 4) . 



It is doubtful if primitive man was a swimmer. No 

 species of modern ape takes to deep water voluntarily 

 and while we know that man did not trace his descent 

 direct from any of them, yet our forebears must have 

 been arboreal, ape-like creatures with little need or de- 

 sire for entering the water. The smaller monkeys, such as 

 the capuchins, swim readily, dog-fashion, when acci- 

 dentally immersed, and more than once I have seen the 

 proboscis monkey in Borneo swimming of its own accord 

 across wide streams. 



On arrival at the seashore, Man's first instinct would 

 have been to try to drink from the shallows and though 

 he found the water bitter, he would learn in time from 

 watching gulls and small mammals, that the shellfish in 

 the tidepools were excellent food. The submergence of 

 the first human being was, I am afraid, not due to any 

 desire for a bath, but doubtless a sudden ducking by the 

 incoming tide. When once he found he could hold his 

 breath and grope about in the deeper pools where mussels 

 and limpets were larger and more abundant, then he laid 

 the foundation for the efforts which have continued 

 throughout the ages. If we must believe that in those days 

 (as well, in many respects, as today) our forefathers 

 learned chiefly by observation and imitation, they had 



