Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1874-07-10

low to explore the mysterious depths
OF the river, the water being fifty feet
deep. The owner Of the armor, who
Is an old hand at the business, acced-
ed to the operators request, and ar
rangements were at once made to
"send him down." What followed is
best described by himself:
''sLowLY SANK OUT OF SIGHT,
and during the first twenty feet Of INV
descent the water around me was
plainly visible, and / could also see
inside of the hemlet; could see all of
a foot off outside. Gradually darkness
came, and slowly increased in inten-
sity until my eyes were useless, and
l could almost feel the gloom. It
was then that l began to feel uncom-
Portable. The pressure Of the water
as kept going down was tremen-
dous, and my head felt bad, and now
and then there was sharp pain in
my ears. Had also a great desire to
reach the bottom, for it seemed as
though | was poised in dull, heavy
air. Suddenly bottom was reached,
when experienced a great sense of
relief, and | commenced to grope
about me. All was still except the
roaring of the pump above, every
stroke of which | could distinctly
hear. The air was escaping from my
hemlet fast, and it sounded like the
boiling Of a large pot ofwater. This
noise was all at once interrupted by
a sharp, swapping sound, and l felt
for the life-cord, fearing that some
thing had happened; but could not
find it! In coming down I carried
with me some tackling to fasten to
stump in the bottom of the river. In
my descent the current turned me
round and round, and much of the
gearing, including much of the life
cord and tackling, became cntangled,
so that when / felt for the cord, which
l ought to have found instantly, it
could not be quickly separated SO as
to work easily. All sound of any de-
scription then ceased, and sense of
drowsinesS came over me.
KNEW THAT THE ESCAPE VALVE
HAD CLOSED,
and / was breathing foul air. Final
ly securing the life cord, 1 signaled
for more air, and could hear the
pump run at an increased speed, but
it was to no purpose, as, by constant
use, the pistons had become so worn
that they could not give the requisite
pressure. l became alarmed, and it
was hard to breath, and my strength
began to fail me. l could do moth
ing to help myself. l seemed to in
crease in size, until my head felt as
though it must burst, and the foul
gas l breathed seemed as if it had
been heated in a furnace, l thought
l should die. The most horrible sem
sation came over me. Finally l ex-
hausted all the air from the suit, then
came tremendous pressure upon my
body on all sides. 1t was terrible.
My eyes felt as though they would
burst from their sockets. My legs
expanded and SO did my arms and
body, till it seemed as though they
too would burst, and
THEN CAME UNCoNsCIousNEss.
When reason returned soft light
seemed to steal over me, and l be-
gan to awake, and after time open
ed my eyes aud found myself on the
surface of the water. could see the
boat on which were my friends, but
all of them had weird look and
their proportions were gigantic, the
smallest boy among them surprising
in size the famous Cardiff giant. Gas
quickly as possible / was hauled
on board the vessel, and the hemlet
was removed. The sensation pro-
duced by the admission of the cold
air was the same as that produced by
the sudden drenching Of sleeper
with ice water. However,, l soon re-
covered my strength and congratu-
lated myself on my very narrow es-
cape from DEATH"
1t seems that after he was let down,
the diver who owned the armor was
somewhat doubtful in regard to the
power of the air pump, and finding
by the sense of feeling that he was
doing nothing on the bed Of the river,
signalled several times but got no
answer. Those on the vessel saw
his countenance change to ashy
white. Then the alarm became gen
eral, and all possible haste was made
to get the diver to the surface.