11 
in the Diving-Bell . 
We breathed during the whole of our stay under water with 
much ease. We experienced now and then a great heat. Our 
perspiration was sometimes copious, and sometimes there sud- 
denly came over us so thick a vapour as to prevent my seeing 
the workmen placed opposite me ; but as by means of the sig- 
nals they constantly sent us from above pure air, in so large 
quantities, that a great part of what was contained in the bell 
made its escape with great violence, this inconvenience very 
soon disappeared. Our pulse was not affected. 
Mr Bald, who went down two days before me in one of the 
bells used at Howth, and to whose kindness I am indebted 
for the communication of his notes and observations, took 
with him a thermometer, and found the temperature of the air 
at the surface and in the inside of the bell to be 6d° Fahr; 
while the temperature of the water within a foot of the bottom 
(that is to say nineteen feet below the surface) was 56° Fahr. 
The light which we had in going down and at the bottom of 
the sea was very strong. Mr Bald could distinguish very 
easily in descending a great number of fishes, and other ma- 
rine animals, which fled at the approach of the diving-bell. 
The sun shone bright, and I could write and read very easily. 
We gathered some fuci, (Fucus jilum , Fucus saccharinus , &c.) 
We took some marine animals, and obtained several pieces of 
rock, which suggest some interesting views, explanatory of 
their formation, which is perhaps owing, as in the case of coral, 
8cc. to certain animals. That part of the bottom of the sea 
which did not present any rock, was composed of sand and 
pebbles. The current of water was very violent ; the colour of 
the water, as seen through the glasses, seemed to us to be of a 
light green : in the bell, where we had about ten or twelve 
inches of it, it was quite colourless. 
Having remained more than an hour at the bottom, and ha- 
ving seen the men work as easily as in the open air, they made 
some signals, and we ascended, fully satisfied with what we had 
seen, and convinced of the facility and safety of these submarine 
operations. Before we went down, they had lost their basket 
at the bottom of the water, and, in order to find it again, they 
were obliged, in using their signals, to have the bell moved in 
every direction, which gave us the advantage of* becoming well 
