10 
Dr Collation's Narrative of ' a Descent 
much, that we were obliged to stop our descent for a short time. 
To remedy that inconvenience, the workmen instructed us, af- 
ter having closed our nostrils and mouth, to endeavour to swal- 
low, and to restrain our respiration, for some moments, in order 
that, by this exertion, the internal air might act on the Eusta- 
chian tube. My companion, however, having tried it, found 
himself very little relieved by this remedy. After some mi- 
nutes, we resumed our descent. My friend suffered consider- 
ably : he was pale, his lips were totally discoloured ; his ap- 
pearance was that of a man on the point of fainting ; he was 
in involuntary low spirits, owing, perhaps, to the violence of 
the pain, added to that kind of apprehension which our si- 
tuation unavoidably inspired. This appeared to me the more 
remarkable, as my case was totally the reverse. I was in a 
state of excitement resembling the effect of some spirituous li- 
quor. I suffered no pain ; I experienced only a strong pres- 
sure round my head, as if an iron circle had been bound about 
it. I spoke with the workmen, and had some difficulty in hear- 
ing them. This difficulty of hearing rose to such a height, that 
during three or four minutes I could not hear them speak. I 
could not, indeed, hear myself speak, though I spoke as loudly 
as possible ; nor did even the great noise caused by the violence 
of the current against the sides of the bell reach my ears. I 
thus saw confirmed by experience what Dr Wollaston had fore- 
seen by theory in his curious and interesting paper on Sounds 
inaudible to certain ears *. 
After some moments, we arrived at the bottom of the water, 
where every unpleasant sensation almost entirely left us. We 
were then twenty-seven feet below the surface. I confess that the 
recollection of the great depth, joined to the idea that if the 
smallest stone, or other matter, should obstruct the action of 
the valve, the bell would be instantly filled with water, did not 
fail to create for a short time a kind of uneasiness. One of the 
workmen, however, to whom I imparted my thoughts on that 
subject, desired me, with a smile, to look at one of the glasses 
placed above us, which I observed to be so much cracked in the 
middle, that bubbles of air were continually escaping. 
* See this Journal^ vcl. iv, p. ] 60. 
