Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1881-03-04
Under The Sea,

UnQci Ihc sea.
GaorCe W. Townsend, a well-knnwn
Submarine diver, has been interviewed
in relation TO his experience. He SAYS:
The lirs. time "a Elan Cne5 down he is
apt t" be considerably scared on ac-
count OF tuc pressure. Ii a man is low
cred tanf fast, il will kill him. Divers
are seldom Or never killed bg drowning,
but by an quail pressure. A diver
cnnla cut hole in the lower portion
Of his snit without danger of being
drowned so long as he stood erect, for,
as long as air is supplied by the air
pump, the water could not reach his
mouth. In deep water the pressure IL
usually very great. and a diver can
iesceEd as deep as he can stand the
pressure. You see We are,in Vacuum
There is no pressure perceptible to
MS On the copper helmets about our
heads. The pressure is all upon the
lower garments, and, if it is too great,
it drives all the blood in the body to
the head, and the reault is death. |
have seen men killed in this way
whose heads were fairly split open,
and whose eyes we're driven from
! thCII bCCnCLSs "A luOlO tOTllDlc u6atU
could not be imagined, and l and
almost all other divers, have narrowly
escaped it. Divers seldom descend over
one hundred sn1 sixty 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 hemlets together and
shouting, but then it does not sound
louder than aD ordinary whisper. A
man who went down for the first time
would be likely to come up after feel
ing the pressure in the ears, which is
very unpleasant until you are tt o.ough-
ly used to it," How about the fish;
DO they ever modest you?"
Very seldom. You SIC we make it a
rule not to disturb them. We know
that they are III their element, and we
are no. in ours. AS for sharks, we
don't care for them. They are coward
ly, and easily frightened off. We arc
much more afraid Of the baricotas. a
surface-tish, with teeth three inches
long. Talk about fish, why, one can't
have any conception Of them until he
has been under the water and seen
them of all sizes and all colors of the
rainbow. The noise made by q school
of fish sounds under the water like the
rambling of thunder. One of the
greatest curl osites in this line was the
Jew fish enco untered when diving in
the Bay Of Camana, on the coast OF Nene-
zuela. The fish ere from six to fifteen
feet in length, and have large mouth.
with small teeth. The Jew fish have q
great deal OF curiosity-more than any
woman that 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. l 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 div
ers received shock from al electric eel,
and for time he seemed almost par
a!yzed. Mules and other animals,
when fording streams in this country,
often receive shock. 1t depends
upon how clear the water is, whether it
is dark or not. have been down
twenty fathoms of water where l could
see to read the finest print, and have
been down ten feet where you coald
not sec your hand before you. 1t is not
very pleasant exploring wreck. espe-
cially where there are dead bodies,
when you are in utter darkness. We
get used to those, and while can't say
that we don't mind them, can say that
they don't deter us from going down.
| am one OF those who believe that
drowning is nu easy death, compare
lively, bec,.u.e b aye notice that the
face Of drowue,. persoa looks RS ii he
hnd gone to sleep. and seldom denotes
pain, but. when the eyes are wide open
aud CLASSY in appearance, 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 on the side of bunk,
aud it is very difficult to unloose their
hold. Before we see holy, or au OBJ
j9ct, uu Ter the water, We always sec the
shadow. In looking for body not on
a vessels wreck, we sometimes find it
by following the sediments in the water.
lin many places the bottom of the
ocean 10 beautiful, especially where
the coral reefs are. Coral looks like
forest of trees that has been cut down.
l have seen coral as large as the stump
of any tree you ever saw, with enor-
nous limbs running downward, the
trunk and the branches being OF the
purest white coral. have encountered
q coral reef after descending three
fathoms, and bottom of pure white
sand after descending two fathoms
more"
NOT THE MAN.--The colored porter
of liquor store, bearing suspicious
looking demijohn, knocked at the door
of fashionable residence on Galveston
avenue. The lady of the house ap.
peared, and the porter asked her if Col.
Soandoso didn't live in the neighbor-
hood. The lady said he did not, and
the porter thought perhaps he might
live next door.
what sort of man is Col. SoaEdo-
SO ?" asked the lady.
"He is one oh desc politicianers
what is alters asking people to sport
him." replied the darkey.
"Good gracious!' said the lady.
"He can't live mex. door, for our neigh
Dor is a quiet. orderly gentleman as
ever was"