AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA. 83 



or hooked on to the walls of their hut, which is nearly as well furnished as that of 

 Robinson Crusoe's? From all this explanation I was bound to conclude, unless the 

 foreman was mixing up a little irony in what he told me, that the divers were quite 

 'at home' in the bell. The fact is, that really they pass in it a great part of their 

 existence. Almost all of them suffer a great deal at first from a violent pain, which 

 they themselves define as 'a toothache gone into the ears/ and they have a humming 

 in the head, ' as if some one had let fty a swarm of bees there ;' but these troublesome 

 symptoms disappear after the second or third descent. Their confidence in this dry 

 chamber, almost isolated in the midst of the turmoil of the ocean, approaches sometimes 

 to temerity. In 1S:JO, Dr. Collodon, of Geneva, who had gone down in a diving-bell 

 on the coast of Ireland, bethought himself that at the depth at which he then was, 

 .a stone, or any other trifling cause obstructing the action of the air-valve, would be 

 .sufficient to enable the water to invade the bell. He confided this not very reassuring 

 reflection to one of the divers who was with him. The latter, smiling, answered him 

 by merely pointing out with his finger one of the glazed loopholes which were over 

 their heads. The doctor examined it attentively, and ascertained, in fact, that the glass 

 was cracked sufficiently to allow bubbles of air to escape pretty freely. This was a very 

 .different and more serious cause of uneasiness than the rather improbable contingency of 

 an obstruction of the air-valve. The diver was well aware of the cracked glass, and cared 

 nothing about it." 



Some time since, when the present writer descended in the diving-bell exhibited in 

 London, a seal which then disported, in the tank would rub its nose outside against the 

 little glass windows, and look in, as though wondering what on earth a visitor was doing 

 there in his element ! The same poor animal afterwards came to grief in a very sad 

 way. When the water was drained off out of the tank the seal got into the pipes below, 

 .and thence to the sewers. It was found, still alive, some time after, in the sewers of the 

 Euston Road, a considerable distance away, but succumbed later to the mephitic influences 

 of the filthy stream. 



M. Esquiros continues: "'They are just beginning to work' was soon remarked 

 to me by the superintendent, who followed, even under the waves, every movement of 

 his labourers. The nature of their operations varies, of course, very much according 

 to the undertaking in which they are engaged. The two divers who had just gone 

 down had for their task to clear away round the adjacent portion of the foundation 

 of the breakwater. As soon as they reach the bottom they jump off their seat, and, 

 .armed with a pickaxe, begin to dig into the moist sand in order to get out the stones. 

 It often happens that the movement of the tide or some other cause disturbs the water 

 round the rocky base of the breakwater. The workmen have then much trouble in seeing 

 clearly, and complain that 'the water is muddy/ Generally, however, the water is so 

 transparent, that even a cloud passing across the sky is visible at the bottom of the 

 sea. The workmen also can labour with nearly as much ease and quite as much energy 

 as if they were on land. The movements they themselves make in conjunction with 

 the circumstances which surround them occasionally cause something like a thick mist 

 to rise before their eyes, hiding from them the nearest objects ; they get quit of it by 



