A DESCENT INTO PERPETUAL NIGHT 1 89 



sional heliograph of itself, and as it turned sideways shot 

 down a blinding flash from its silvery sides. 



My ichthyo-physics were suddenly interrupted by a 

 feeling of chill about my feet and ankles, and reaching 

 down I found about eight inches of water. Barton leaned 

 to one side and I saw a perfect cataract of water pouring 

 in from both sides of the door. His saturated condition 

 had made him oblivious of the new source of wetness. 

 From our depth of not more than four feet I called for 

 an immediate ascent and up we swung out of the green 

 again into golden light. This shallow test dive had seemed 

 so brief and safe that it had very reasonably been thought 

 that four of the great nuts would hold the door in place 

 instead of the ten used on deep dives. The result was a 

 joking matter, but nevertheless showed how necessary it 

 was never, for an instant, to relax precautions. The first 

 fraction of a second after I discovered the inpouring flood 

 aroused a subconscious reaction all its own, which will 

 never quite be eradicated by the instantly succeeding ones 

 of reason and humor. 



I have seen the results of an implosion in the bathy- 

 sphere 2000 feet down, where, in the icy blackness, we 

 would have been crushed into shapeless tissues by nothing 

 more tangible than air and water; and now I had seen 

 the inrush of the first few quarts of the same ocean in 

 full sunlight and almost at the surface. When one is work- 

 ing with an instrument like the bathysphere, which is to 

 be transportation, temporary home, and in fact one's en- 



