HOW SPONGES ARE PROCURED 



under one arm, and looped up once more to the helmet ; 

 the other end of the tube communicates with a two- 

 or three-cylinder air pump. It can, of course, be joined 

 up to any length, and is made as long as the life-line. 



Thus habited, our diver is lifted over the side of 

 the vessel on to a ladder which runs some little distance 

 under water, and when he is certain that all his gear 

 is quite safe, he lets himself go. One man watches the 

 life-line, another pays out the tube, and one or two more 

 turn the handle of the air-pump. As soon as he reaches 

 the bottom, the diver takes from his shoulders a coil 

 of thin cord which he has brought down with him 

 the " track-line." Perhaps one end is weighted ; if not 

 he ties it to whatever fixture he can find and then sets off 

 on his travels to the end of his tether, which is a fairly 

 long one, letting the track-line run from his hand as he 

 goes ; stopping every now and then to gather the finest 

 and largest sponges he can see, and packing them as 

 closely as possible in the net-bag that hangs over his 

 shoulders. 



If the trawler feels some excitement when the first 

 opportunity arrives of peeping into a net that has come 

 up from the bottom, what must be the diver's first feel- 

 ing on finding himself free to roam about for an hour on 

 one of the world's oldest if not richest submarine treasure- 

 grounds? What would not most antiquarians give to 

 spend an hour in such a spot, off Sicily, or Cyprus, or 

 Greece ? 



Men can gather sponges and yet keep a watchful eye on 

 possible submerged treasure, and in this way very valuable 



256 



