BATHYSPHERE DIVE THIRTY-FIVE 257 



nescent spots to the dimness of a fish's bulk beyond them. 

 In any evaluation of the observations made during the 

 bathysphere dives, these factors must be given first rank 

 importance. 



My impressions of what we saw in the greater depths 

 and of how I felt have kaleidoscoped. Darkness and flash- 

 ing lights have become inextricably mixed, and parts of the 

 descent might be compared to a journey through the 

 heavens on some yet-to-be-invented machine at unheard- 

 of speeds — a constellation suddenly appearing and dis- 

 appearing, a quick flash as some larger celestial body came 

 into view — all of them disappearing with the rapidity of 

 meteors arriving in our atmosphere. 



The journey from the surface to the depths and back 

 again divided itself rather unevenly, as far as interest was 

 concerned, between what happened inside of the bathy- 

 sphere and what occurred outside. Although I had de- 

 scended before to shallower depths in the sphere, I was 

 again impressed by the amazing amount of room that 

 existed within a globe of fifty-four inches inside diameter. 

 Surrounded as we were by blowers, chemical trays, oxygen 

 tanks, and valves, searchlights, switch-boxes, telephones, 

 thermo- and humidostats, minor instruments, and tools, 

 there still remained considerable space, and we could oc- 

 casionally stretch one portion of our anatomy after an- 

 other, although by no means could we stand upright. 



Within the sphere one forgot completely that outside, 

 pressing all about us, were the vast accumulated tons of 



