Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1883-05-30
Perlls Under Water.

down. AS you descend all Is darkness !:
you see absolutely nothing. The sensa-
ton Is OF bursting, roaring, rumbling
sound, which rattles through your cars
and makes your brain whirl. IL Is caused
by the air entering the helmet, or shell,
as IL is called, from the pumps, The flex-
ible air-hosc has to be strong enough to
bear pressure Of twenty-five or fifty
pounds to the square inch. The drum OF
the ear yields to the strong external pres
sure, the mouth opens involuntarlly, the
air rushes in the tube and strikes the drum,
which snaps back to its normal state with
a sharp pistol crack. Reaching the bot
tom a world of splendor Is opened up,
which the diver, clad in his close-ftting
rubber suit, peering out of his dead eyes,
views with wonder and astonishment.
Huge fish and briny monsters float about,
glancing askance at this moving invader
of their domains. Tiny fish crowd up
and nibble at the fingers and toes of the
diver, and other more timid ocean inhab-
itants shoot OFF out of sight. Sometimes
the water is light blue, then again 1t
changes to bottle-green. II the tide Is
moving all objects seem distorted. Per-
haps the sun shines upon the water, and
then oil above Is pure golden canopy,
while around and close at hand are tints
and shimmering hucs, including all colors,
which are elegant beyond description.
The floor OF the sea rises and falls like u
golden carpet, incllning gently to the SUR
face. The wreck of ship seems studded
with emeralds glittering in lines of gold /;
piles of brick appear as crystals, ladder
becomes silver, ever shadow giving the
impression of bottomless depth. Shells
OF every description lay scattered about,
and huge cutle-nsh lay fast asleep In the
ocean bed, while every variety OF mineral
substance lay scattered about, with some
times here and there grlnnlng skeleton,
whose bones are strewn half covered with
sand or sea-weed. The cave of Aladdin
in the arabian Nights" Is no grander
than the bottom of the ocean off some of
the South American coasts.
SHARKS.
The shark is cowardly fish. He never
attacks one unless you provoke The quar-
rel. have met thousands Of them, and
had them swim all around me, with their
horrd CLASSY, death-llke eyes glazing at
me, and their huge mouths under their
belly swapping as though 1t was ready to
swallow me. The noise that the air
makes roaring into the shell frightens
them, and then they see that the man Is
moving about. At Callao Uarbor, which
is regular sharks nest, went down for
ty feet or more, and met lots of these
ocean devils, but none of them offered to
modest me. At first thought IL very dan
gerous, as the slaughter-houses at Calloa
project over the harbor and all the offal is
thrown into the water, which. of course,
the sharks are greedy after. The shark
has to turn on to his back before he can
strike you, and were attacked by one
should lie down on my face at the bottom
of the ocean and be perfectly safe. The
most voracious of all the shark family Is
the green shark, and the harbor of Collao
was fairly alive with these monsters.
The only scare | ever had with a fish
was when first went down off the Sonth
American coast. had great big crow
bar in my hand, which, perhaps, fell about
q foot or eighteen inches below my feet
Just beneath me lay huge cuttle-fish fast
asleep. or course | did not sec him, and
the crowbar went clear through him.
The cuttlc-flsh has u peculiar mode OF at
tack He discharges black humor, which
makes the water look like Ink. The first
| knew il was so black all around Inc |
could not see my hand before my face.
couldn't imagine what had broken loose,
and signaled to pull me up. The natives
all laughed, and told me 1t was only q cut
fetish. Not long after the cuttlc-flsh was
worked ashore, and there was my crow
bar gone clear through him.
THE DIVERS OUTFIT.
Divng-be are gone completely out Of
date. They only enable the workmen to
work within the limits of the bell where
as, as the suits are now made, one can go
all around and over wreck. These suits
consist, first Of copper shell, about three
sixteenth of an inch In thickness, made in
as nearly globular form as possible.
This is provided with dead'eyes, or glasses,
TO enable the diver to see, and fits Into the
shoulders by means of yoke. The shell
has strong ring-bolt in the top and be-
low, which has securely fastened to it a
rubber suit, including shirt, pants and
stockings. The sleeves of the jacket are
gathered around the wrists and firmly
tied. Coarse leather shoes arc worn, on
the soles of which are fastened huge plates
of lead, while series OF pockets In the
jackets arranged also to hold leaden
weights. The shoes weigh eighteen or
twenty pounds. Sometimes | carried as
much as 1913 pounds of lead about Inc,
and when in the water so great Is the
buoyancy that you do not feel this weight.
The air should escape as soon as 1t Is
pumped into the shell, though some divers
shut it of, and if the suit becomes full
then they shoot to the top like shot from
a cannon, and are in danger of striking
the barge, cracking the shell, in which
case death would ensue ut once. | saw q
diver who hod formerly been connected
with the British navy try this to his peril.
| noticed him coming up one day few
feet from the barge, and his body shot up
three feet out of the water. | said My
friend, that's dangerous He made some
insolent reply, and wanted to know what
| knew about diving. | answered that /
knew that some day he would come up
once TO often in that kind OF manner,
and walked off. 1t was not ten days be-
fore my foolish remark proved true, for
he come up against the barge and split
open his skull and sank TO rise no more
Staying under water reduces the temper
allure, and sometimes congestion ensues.
The nose begins TO bleed, and sometimes
the ears, next consciousness Is lost. The
pressure Of air on the lungs Is about If
teen pounds to the square inch, and the
deeper you 20 the greater the pressure be-
comes. So that the great weights arc
n ceded to counterfeit this pressure. The
greatest depth ever went was sixty eight
feet. Though Frenchman in examining
The wreck Off the coast Of England last
March went down 144 or 14S feet, but he
could not remain long. Going down TO u
great depth is not dangerous from a lack
Of air, but from collapse The pressure
)f water may smash your glasses, break
he shell, or, If your suit fills, 1t may burst.
Cincinnati Enquirer.