Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1861-01-31

Mr.. Green, the fsmsps diver, telIs sinsu-
lar stories of his adventures, when making
search in the deep waters Of the ocean. he
gives some sketches Of what he saw on the
Silver Banks, near Hayii:
The Banks Of coral on which my diyirrs
were made, are about forty miles in length,
and from ten to twenty in breadth
On this bank Of conIis presented to the
diver one of the most beautiful and sublime
scenes the eye ever beheld. The water var
les from ten to one hundred feet in depth,
and ID 80 clear that the diver can see from
two to three hundred feet, when submerged,
with little obstruction to the sight.
The bottom Of the ocean, inmany place,
on these banks, is o. smooth as marble
floor; in others it is studded with coral COL
urnns, from ten to one hundred feet in height
and from one to eighty feet'in diameter.
The tops Of those more lofty support q my
Rad of pyramidal pendants, each forming
. myriad more; giving the reality to the i'm
aginary abode Of some water nymph. In
other places, the pendants form srch after
arch, and as the diver stands on the bottom
Of the ocean, and gases through these into
the deep winding avenue, he feels that they
fill him with as sacred an awe as if he were
in some old cathedral, which had long been
buried beneath sold oceans wave" Here
and there, the coral extends even to the sur
face of the water, as if those loftier columns
were towers belonging to those stately tenn
pies now in ruins
There were countless varieties Of diuanu-
tive trees, shrubs. and:plants, in every crev-
ice ofthe corals where the water had depos-
tied the least earth They were al ofa faint
hue, owing to the pale light they received,
although Of every shade and d'entirely differ
ent from plantsI am familiar with, that
vegetate upon dry land One in particular
attracted my attention it resembled sea-
tan ofimmense size, Of variegated color,
and Of the:most brilliant hue
The fish which 55inhabited! those SILVER
banks, Iifound 'as different in kind. as the
scenery was varied They,were' of all forms.
colors, and sizes-from the symmetrical
goby, to the globelike. sunfrh; from those
of the dullest hue to the changeable dolphin:
from the spots of the leopard, to the hses n
the sunbeam; from the harmless minnow,
to the voracious shark. Some had heads
like squirrels, others like cats and dogs one
Of small size resembled bull terrier. Some
darted through the water like meteors,
while Others could scarcely be seen to move.
To enumerate and explain all the various
kinds of fish beheh while diving on thsse
a banks, would, were enough of q naturalis
= 80 to do. require more space than my limit.
will allow, for / am mTconvinced that most o
the kinds offish which inhabit the tropical
seas, can be found there. The sun-fish,
. saw-fsh. star-fsh, white shark, groundjshar
blue or shovel-nose sharks were often seen.
There were also fish which resemJled plants
and remained as fixed in their position as
shrub The only power they possessed wa
to open and shut when in danger. Some {
, them. resembled the rose in full bloom, an,
were of all hues. There were ribbon-fsh
- from four or five inches to three feet Il
: length. Their eyes are very large, nndipro
u Il trude like those of the fog. Another fifl
y was spotted like the leopard, from three {,
. ten feet long. They build their houses lik
= the beaver in which they spawn, and tn
IL male or female watches the ova till it hatch
l. es l saw many specimens of the green tur
y tie, some fivefeet long, which ] should thini
~ would weigh. from four to Eve hundrs
IT, pounds.