The New Orleans daily Democrat., 1880-04-13
ON TIE OCEANS BOTTOM.
How It Seems TO BE Far Under
the Water.
A Submarine Divers Life and Dangers
Cropping for Dead Bodies on
Wreck -Curiositiss Of the Deep
Brought to Light.

How does 1t seem, SAID Boston HefGta
reporter tho other day to George w. Town
send. q diver Of twenty-three years experts
ence. "to go down into the water fathom after
fatbom p "Wel," WAS the reply. "the first
time o man goes down be is apt to be consid
| erably scared on account OF the pressure. III
q man is lowered too fast it will kill him.
Divers are seldom or never killed by drown
ing, but by an unequal pressure. A diver
| could cut q hole In the lower portion Of iiis
suit without danger Of being drowned as long
as he stood erect. for as long as air Ia sup
piled by the air pump the water could not
| reach his mouth In deep water the pres~
sure Is very great, and usually diver
can descend rs deep as he can stand
| the pressure. You see we are In
vacuum. There is NO pressure per-
cpptlble to US on the copper helmets
about our heads. The pressure is all
| upon the lower garments, aui, Ii IL tg too
great, 1t drives al the blood In the body TO
| the head, aud the result Is death | have seen
| men killed In this way whose heads were fair
iy split open aud whose eyes were driven
| from their sockets. A more horrible death
| could not be Imagined, andI and almost all
| other divers have narrowly escaped II. When
the diver Is ten feet down the pressure TO the
sqnare foot Is $3.50 pouuds; at thirty feet 49,
| 750 pounds; ~ fifty feet, 81, ,350 pounds; at
seventy feet. $50 pounds: at uinety feet, &c.
| $50 pounds at ITO feet. 68 750 pounds, ut 150
| feet, III $50 pounds; vt $50 fest, which Is the
| greatest depth to which nave descendsd a3.-
| 750 pounds, and at t60 feet, 100, 900 pounds.
Divers seldom descend over 10 fest, and Fare
| ly as deep as that Under the water the ears
ieel stopped up, but sUmetltu6s we can make
| ourselves understood by putting two helmets
| together and shouting, but then 1t doesn't
sound louder than an ordinary whisper. A.
nan who went down for the fret time would
be- likely to signal TO come up after
feeling the pressure IN the ears, which Is very
UNPLEASANT until yon are used to IT,"
How about the fish. do they ever molest
your
Every seldom. You see, we make It q rule
not to disturb them. We know that they are
In their element. and we are not In ours. AS
for sharks, We don't care for them They are
cowafdly, and easily frightened off. We are
much more afraid OF the baricoats, surface
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
colors of the rainbow. The noise made by q
school Of fish sounds under water like the
rumbling OF thunder. One of the greatest
curiosities In this line WAS the Jew fish en-
na, on the coast of Venezuela. The fish are
from six 10 fifteen feet In length, and have
large mouth with small teeth. The Jew fish
have q great deal OF curiosity-~more than
US while we were at work. We were O little
afraid OF them at first but found that they
would not harm us. / suppose you have
heard OF the electric eel, which has the power
we were diving at the West Indies one OF our
divers received shock from an electric eel,
and for time he seemed almost paralyzed.
Mules and other animals when fording
streams In this country often receive shock
"Is 1t dark under water7"
THAT depends upon how clear the water ig.
have been down twenty fathoms where
could see TO read the finest print, and have
VfNxryv tAv,
your hand before you. It is not very pleasant
exploring wreck, especially where there are
dead bodies, when you are In utter darkness.
l remember working In March, 1851, on the
street wharf, Philadelphia. The water OF the
Delaware river Ia 30 thick and muddy that
you can't see any thing five feet below the
surface, and as the steward and stevedore
we're both drowned, / knew I should not have
q very pleasant job In recovering their bodies.
We'll, / went down, CROPPED around In the
darkness, found the skylight, and after got
into the cabin the first thing that my, hands
isn't 1t a horrible sight. among the dead
bodies In vessels wreck?'
well, yes: but we get used to those sights,
and, while can't say We don't mind them,
can say that they don't deter us from going
down. l am one OF those who believe that
drowning Is an easy death, com paratively,
because. | have noticed that the face OF
drowned person looks as IL he had gone to
the eyes are wide open and CLASSY In appear
ance, and the gas In the stomach makes the
body stand bolt upright, 1t is rather trying to
the nerves. Sometimes we find drowned per-
sons with death-grip upon piece OF rigging
or the side OF q bunk, and 1t 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 Ii closely
following the sediment In the water"
"How ABOUT THE BOTTOM OF THE oCEAN?'
'In many places 1t is beautiful, especially
where the coral reefs are. Coral looks like
forest OF threes that has been cut down.
have seen coral as large as the stump OF any
tree you ever saw, with enormous IL bs run
ming downward, the trunk and branches being
OF the purest white coral. have encountered
coral reef after descending three fathoms,
and a bottom OF pure white sand after de-
Scendfng two fathoms more"
~
MIR. Vanderbilt Going out of Business,
[Chicago Tfmes1
New YORK, March 31-W. II. Vanderbilt
has within the past week told his intimate
friends that he desireg tn he relieved at an