I20 TO DAVY JONES S LOCKER 



fused quartz did away with all distortion. Full 20 feet 

 away I could see them coming, and the knowledge of their 

 actual size — that of a thimble — gave me a gauge of com- 

 parison which helped in estimating distance, size, and speed 

 of unknown organisms. 



I found that little things could change my whole mental 

 outlook in the bathysphere. Up to this moment I had been 

 watching the surface or seeing surface organisms, and I 

 had focused so intensely upward that what was beneath 

 had not yet become vivid. As the last thimble jelly passed, 

 an air bubble broke loose from some hidden corner of 

 the sphere, and writhing from the impetus of its wrench- 

 ing free, rose swiftly, breaking into three just overhead, 

 and the trio vanished. Now I felt the isolation and the 

 awe which increased with the dimming of the light; the 

 bubble seemed the last link with my upper world, and 

 I wondered whether any of the watchers saw it coming, 

 silver at first, then clothing itself in orange and red iri- 

 descence as it reached the surface — to break and merge 

 and be lost forever. 



At 200 feet there occurred my first real deep-sea ex- 

 perience on this dive, something which could never be 

 duplicated on the surface of the water. A six-inch fish 

 suddenly appeared, nosed the bag of ancient squid and 

 then took up its position close to the glass of my win- 

 dow, less than a foot away from my face. Something about 

 it seemed familiar, yet it was strange. In size, shape, and 

 general pattern it was very like a pilot-fish, Naucrafes 



