Chapter 9 



AT THE END OF THE SPECTRUM 



THE WIND did not abate during the next three days, 

 and not until Thursday, September 22nd, did we 

 make another attempt. 



Out at sea we found it choppy but with no swell and 

 as quickly as possible we attached the hose, screwed up 

 the stuffing box as tightly as we dared and slung the bathy- 

 sphere over. We let it out the full length of the hose, tying 

 it to the cable with rope every hundred feet. There was 

 no apparatus inside except an alarm clock attached to the 

 telephone wires. 



When the bathysphere was at a depth of 2000 feet I 

 heard the ticking as loud as the blows of a hammer, and 

 four minutes later the alarm was heard to go oflf. At 2150 

 feet the clock stopped, but continued carbon noises made 

 it probable that the wires were still unharmed. We were 

 encouraged by the apparent lightness of the sphere as it 

 approached the surface and when it was opened we found 

 that it had taken in only a gallon of water from the stuf- 

 fing box, and that the wires were in perfect condition. 



The staff of the New York Zoological Society's Tropical 

 Research Department had gone through the routine so 

 often two years ago and during the last two heart-breaking 



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