WONDERS OF THE DEEP 19 



with an inventive faculty, and they took up the 

 work where their father left off, and were thus 

 enabled to give the present generation a means of 

 probing the wonders of the depths of the ocean. 



One memorable summer evening, in the year 

 1912, Ernest Williamson, the Captain's eldest son, 

 who was then engaged as a cartoonist and photo- 

 grapher on the " Virginia Pilot," happened to be 

 in a town in Yucatan. Just as the sun was 

 setting he was passing a tall apartment house, 

 and the steep side of the building, seen in a 

 golden haze, with long, slanting shadows over it, 

 looked like a mysterious fortress under the sea. 

 This uncommon sight immediately recalled some 

 motion pictures he had seen of fish taken in an 

 aquarium tank. Then, all of a sudden, an in- 

 spiration flashed through his mind. Why not 

 utilise his father's tube as a means of taking 

 photographs under the water? 



No sooner had the possibility of the thing 

 occurred to him than he straightway placed the 

 proposal before the Captain, who, strange to relate, 

 seemed to take but little interest in the sugges- 

 tion, not, perhaps, at the moment realising the full 

 significance of the idea. At any rate, he raised 

 no objection to the proposed plan, and eventually 

 came to the conclusion that the idea might after 

 all be practicable. Having obtained the Captain's 

 permission, Ernest was not long in securing the 

 co-operation of his brother George, and the two, 

 fired with youthful enthusiasm, and realising the 



