Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1883-11-18

SUBMARINE ExPERIRxCRs.
strange sights Under water.
YES" said the diver, I'VE Sc
more strange sights in salt water thai
fresh. I've spent ten years in cal
water diving and had all / want
The first job l got was Q good man,
years ago, and was all by accident
/ started for Key West to get q jol
at brickiaying, but when ! got Their
the government was hiring slave
from their owners SO cheap that j
didn't pay. At last drifted over Il
Mstanzas. and there found mysel
dead broke. was about giving "
one day when q man came up anc
asked me II wanted Q job. OF courst
/ said yes. Then he told me that hs
was the head Of party that were
going to hunt for q ship that VA
wrecked OF the coast hundred
years before, supposed TO be loaded
with gold. Well, the long and short
Of it was they couldn't get . diver,
and offered me the Job and ! took Il.
They hired Q small schooner, and
with Q crew Of five or six set out
along the coast and came TO anchor
five miles of shore, On Q reef that
shelved of gradually into deep water
1t was week before they got the
spot they wanted me to go down,
and in the meantime I'd been prac-
ticing 30 that at last ! could stand it.
One day they anchored over q big
black patch that looked like coral,
and told me to make the survey. l
reckon. the water must have been
sixty feet deep, and, | tell you, it
gave me kind of shake. They let
me down slow, 80 that the sudden
pressure wouldn't affect me, and In
about ten minutes | found myself in
q regular forest of coral. II was in
regular banks on each side, some
twenty feet in hight, and not this
common branch kind you see in the
stores, but brown, with the points all
sticking out, and / should judge,
they were six feet long. The strang-
est thing to me was the tameness OF
the fishes. If stood still they came
toward me in schools, floating in
front of my hemlet, and even when
! raised my arms they only moved
little; they evidently thought was
. big crab.
LAS soon as / got the lay of the
land ! found could see well enough
and / started along the street be-
tween the coral walls. The bottom
was as hard as rock, and ! hadn't
gone more than fifty feet before /
saw something looming up ahead,
and q few minutes later / was under
the stern of q big ship. She must
have been there years; the coral
had grown up around her and in a.
the stern windows. Her masts were
gone, and the star fish, crabs and
shells were hanging ont Of the seams;
in tact, she was picture Of des0ls-
ton, If you ever saw one. | struck
my boathook in the deck, and hauled
myself aboard. Her hold" contin-
ued the diver. relighting his pipe,
was . regular garden. coral grow
ing cut of it just as If 1t was planted
there, and the decks were that slip
perry with sea-weed and living things
thai il was hard to hold up. The
hold was 80 full of coral that l gave
up looking there, aud made aft The
companion-way-in fact, the whole
side of the house, gave away as !
touched tall rotten and bored by
Z kind of worm, and instead OF ris-
ing, the planks sunk like lead. |
fixed the hook into the deck where
it appeared solid, and gradually low
cred myself into the cabin. Coral
was growing on everything One of
the doors was still on o state-room.
] knocked it in, and big fish shot
out through al open headlight, and
there were all sorts Of things crawl
ing about.
mo, there wasn't the sign Of q hu-
man being; she had been there too
long, but l picked up heap of what
| took to be tin cans and things, and
strung them on line and sent them
up, and they proved to be gold and
silver dishes. They were lying on
the cabin floor, and we're overgrown
with stuff. In the state-r0om there
we're heaps OF money, perhaps $1,000.
eli black and eaten; all this l took
on dock and sent up, and then went
up myself. We hung about there
for . week, trying TO get the coral
ous of the hold, but It Was - solid e
rock, and you couldn't get under or
into II. The only force you can
bring to bear under water 10 . Lift; q
blow or Q pull doesn't amount to
anything, as you throw yourself right
on your feet.
THE GIANT RAY.
THE last trip l made down to the
old hulk came near being my last, /
reckon. I was just coming up from
the hold when saw something dark
coming along. / drew back think
ing Of sharks, and got behind the
combings, when there came along
the biggest fish / ever clapped my
eyes on before or since. 1t was what
they call q giant ray. or devil-fish,
and was moving along. Tapping its
side-fins just like wings. Il must
have been twenty feet wide, and
weighed perhaps . couple of tons.
On Its head were two kinds of horns
OF fesh,. and the skipper told me
afterward if the fish had caught my
tube between those I'd been anchored
there for life. As it was, tie big
creature shut out all the light for Q
minute, just grazed the line. aud
went on, and l can tell you l was on
the schooner lively. No. l didn't 60
down again for one while, for ] was
al broken up with the scare.
SHARKS.
"How about the sharkss They
rarely attack q diver In armor, and
IN fair light. with . boat-hook.
think could defend myself. They
are cowardly fishes. had one rut
against my line once Ia the Mcditer
ranean sea, where l was fishing Tor
lost cable, but the first move made
he moved of. The divers after peari'
10 the Indian ocean, and other ioca.
tiles, are sometimes attacked, ou
thew 90 naked The KaDakaS use |