The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1871-08-30

not come near him. Wood waa afraid
of his hand being bitten; ed q copget' 8
bite Is very bad. He once knew, diver
| whose finger was seized, by a. ednRer.
The brute took all the flesh clean Off the
mans finger. A conger is a very DAN
gerous animal in the water However,
this couger kept swimming round about
Wood, SO he took his clasp. knife ont and
tried to stab him, but the conger would
not come near enough to be killed. It
was long while before the oonger would
go away, and even after he had gone
away, Wood could not 60 on working,
because he was not sure that he was
really gone for good, and it might hive
como out OF some corner ut my minute
andnipped his fingers.
Mr.. Wood has had other adventures
with fish when working under water.
He was once employed in fixing some
heavy stones in the harbor at Dover;
while waiting for the stones to oome
down from the ship above, he sat down
on rock, and being very quiet, shoal
Of whiting pont came up to examine the
strange visitor to their suh-aqueous resi-
dence; they played oil about him, and
kept on biting ut the thick glass which
formed the eyes Of his diving helmet; so
next time Wood went down, he took
with him fish-hook fastened into the
end Of short stick-a gaff, in fuct. The
pouts came around him as usual, and he
GATED them, one after another, with his
hook. He then strung them on string,
and came up, after his days work was
over, with goodly fry of whiting pouts
for his supper. ~
On another occasion. Wood. was em.
ployed to bring up some pigs of lead
from the hold of vessel. When he was
walking about on the top of the lead, he
felt something alive under his feet. It
kicked Tremendously, but he knelt down
upon 1t to keep it steady; he soon ascer-
tanned that it was an enormous skate
that he was standing on, so he served
him as he did the lobster. he watched
his opportunity, and slipped the moose
of his line around the skates tail; he
then signalled to ''haul," and up went
Master Skate, Tapping his great wings
like wounded eagle, and nightly asto.
n1shed were the people in the boat when
they found monster skate on the end
OF the line. and not a pig of lead.
Wood once nearly lost his life when at
the bottom of the sea. A Prussian yes-
sci had gone down off the Mouse Buoy
in the Thames estuary. The captain
was drowned in hie cabin, and Wood had
undertaken to get him out if he possibly
could. Arriving at the bottom of the
seq. Wood found the vessel lying over
on her side, and that she had gone down
with all her sails snt. He tried to get
into the cabin, but found the mainsail
all over the cabin door. He was Just
about to return, when he found that his
air-pipe and signal line had suddenly got
jammed. Fully aware of his very dan
gerous position. and without losing his
presence OF mind, he sat quietly on the
edge OF the vessel and considered. The
men above he could find were signaling
to him violently to come up, but he
could not answer, as the line was
jammed. He took out his pocket-knife.
and thought two or three times of cut.
ting himself adrift. AS last chance. he
determined to adopt another course, 80
he climbed up the rigging, among the
great wet sails and loose ropes, as we'll
as he could, and fortunately found the
place where his air-pipe was hitched.
He carefully loosened it, gave the signal,
and was hauled up Immediately. If 1
understand right; the line was clear
enough when he went down, but while
be was at work on the sanken ship the
tide changed. and carrying his pipe and
line in the opposite direction to chat in
which it had been originally conducted,
it became jammed. He did not get to
the surface one instant too soon, for the
boat was just drifting. as her anchors
would not hold.-Cor. Land and Water.
A Maryland paper improves upon the
usual style OF death notices by recording