Morning journal and courier., 1880-06-21
The Rolling Deep.
Curiositfes of the Oceans Bed, as Seen by
 n Diver.


 s'How does it seem, said Boston report CT the other day to George W. Townsend, a diver of twenty three years experience, ''to go down into the water fathom after fath- om?'' ''Well, :" was the reply, 'the first time a man goes down he is apt to be considerably scared on account of the pressure. If man is lowered too fast it will kill him. Divers are seldom or never killed by drowning but by an unequal pressure A diver could cut hole in the lower portion of his suit without danger of being drowned as long as he stood erect, for as long as air was supplied by the air pump the water could not reach his mouth In deep water the pressure is very great, and usually diver can descend as deep as he can stand the pressure. You see we in a vacuum. There is no pressure perceptible to us on the copper helmet about our heads. The pressure is all upon the lower garments, and if it is too great it drives all the blood in the bony to the head and the result is death. have seen men killed in this way whose heads were fairly split open and whose eyes were driven from their sockets. A more horrible death could not be imagined, and I, and al most all other divers, have narrowly escaped it. Divers seldom descend over ITO feet, and rarely as deep as that. Under the water the ears feel stopped up, but sometimes we can make ourselves understood by putting two helmets together and shouting, but then it doesn't sound louder than an ordinary whis- per. A man who went down for the first time would be likely to signal to come up af- ter feeling the pressure in the ears, which is very unpleasant until you are used to it.
 ''How about the fish do they ever molest you?'
 ''Very seldom. You see, we make it rule not to disturb them. You know that they are in their element, and we are not in ours As for sharks, we don't care for them. They are cowardly and easily frightened off. We are much more afraid of the baricoats, sur face fish, with teeth three inches long. Talk about fish, why, one can't have any concep- ton of them until he has been under the wa ter and seen them of all sizes and colors of the rainbow. The noise made by school of fish sounds under water ilzo the rumbling of thunder.
 ''One of the greatest curiosities in this line was the Jew fish encountered when diving in the bay of Cumana, on the coast of Vene- zuela The fish are from six to fifteen feet in length, and have large mouth with small teeth. The Jew fish have great deal of cu- riosity-more than any woman know of and used to eye us while we were at work. We were a little afraid of them at first but found that they would not harm us. sup pose you have heard of the electric eel, which has the power to give shock equal to any battery When we were diving at the West Indies one of our divers received a shock from an electric eel, and for time he seemed almost paralyzed Mules and other animals when fording streams in that country often receive shock"
 ssIs it dark under water ?"
 "That depends upon how clear the water is. I have been down twenty fathoms where I could see to read the finest print, and I have been down ten feet where you could not see your hand before you. It is not very pleasant exploring wreck, especially where there are dead bodisS, when you are, in utter darkness. remember working in March, 1861 on the ship John Trux. which was sunk at the Arch street wharf, Philadelphia. The water of the Delaware river is so thick and muddy that you can't see anything five feet below the surface, and as the steward and stevedoor were both drowned knew should not have a very pleasant job in recovering their bodies. We'll went down, groped around in the darkness found the skyight and after got into the cabin the first thing that my hands touched was the body of the steward. D
 'Isnt it horrible sight among the dead bodies in a vessels wreck ?''
 ''Wen. yes we get used to these sights, and, while I can't say that we don't mind them, I can say they don't deter us from go ing down. am one of those who believe that drowning is an easy death, comparative ly, because have noticed that the face of a drowned person looks as if he had gone to sleep, and seldom denotes pain; but, when the eyes are wide open and glassy in look, and the gas in the stomach makes the body stand bolt upright, it is rather trying to the nerves. Sometimes we find drowned persons with death grip upon piece of rigging or the side of bunk, and it is very difficult to unloosen their hold Before we see body or an. object under the water we always see the shadow first In looking for body on vessels wreck we sometimes find it closely following the sediment in the water.''
 ssHow about the bottom of the ocean ?"
 'Tn many places it is beautiful, especially where the coral reefs are. Coral looks like a forest of trees that has been cut down. I have seen coral as large as the stump of any tree you ever saw, with enormous limbs, run ming downward the trunk and branches be- ing of the purest white coral. I have en- countered coral reef after descending three fathoms, and bottom of pure white sand af- ter descending two fathoms more"
 An enterprising cencus taker has discovered that one woman doesn't know what her hus- bend doas ThaYa ara oreaf many xvnmar