178 THE OCEAN 



upon their ability to dive to great depths and 

 to remain under water for a long time. But 

 none of these is able to remain below the 

 surface for over three minutes or to reach a 

 greater depth than forty or fifty feet. Time 

 is a deceptive matter and while a man may 

 appear to be below water for five or ten min- 

 utes, yet if we time him by a watch we find 

 he is only there two minutes or so. 



It is an interesting matter to watch one of 

 these men at work, to look through the clear 

 tropical sea and see the brown-skinned body 

 shoot downward through the water, to see the 

 dim, far-away form walk about, pick up ob- 

 jects from the floor of the sea and then rise like 

 a cork to the surface. Sometimes the divers 

 work head-down, prying, cutting or digging 

 the sponges, corals, or pearl shells from their 

 homes upon the bottom. At such times the 

 watcher from above may see the diver's feet, 

 soles-up and presenting a wonderfully curious 

 sight as the owner works with his hands at the 

 treasures of the sea below him. 



Sometimes a diver will go below with a 

 crowbar and a rope and far beneath the sur- 



