Omaha daily bee., 1888-10-14

America. They were building a dock
there, and | was sent down to saw OFF
some old hickory piles that had been
under water for a century. | thought
could cut out about half dozen a day,
but they had almost turned into bone,
and | was in luck to cut out one in two
days. They had them carved into all
kinds of trinkets and sold them for
curios. But most of my work was done
in North America"
mo, I never was troubled with
sharks continued Mr.. Scully, land
very few divers are when they wear
suits, though do think they might be
troublesome while a man is on top OF the
water. But they are very big towards.
The only fish that ever troubled me
were the eels and kind of jelly fish.
The eels are very inquisitive and come
up and look in your eyes or poke their
heads between your fingers. The Jelly
fish adhere to your hands, and leave a
smarting itching sensation-worse than
handling nettlcs."
"How does it feel beneath the water?
Well | can hardly describe it. It's
rather pleasant for thirty or forty feet,
but when you go below that, you begin
to feel pressure on the chest, and you
can tell every foot you go below one
hundred, and you can tell any one that
| talks to you about divers going down
800 or 400 feet, and seeing dead bodies
| floating around wrecks, that its all
| wrong. No living man can go down
| that depth and come up alive, and be-
| sides, no matter how clear the water is
| you can't see five feet from you. I've
| read a newspaper forty feet below the
| surface, but the water looks like
a fog and you can't see
| anything few feet away
from you, More than that, a diver
doesn't keep his eyes open-he can't,
he would be blinded if he did. II you
| get on the sunny side of wreck the
reflection of the sunlight through the
| water and through the glasses in the
| helmet dazZles and in lures the eyesight.
| Then when you go to what you might
call the shady side of the wreck. or in
| the cabin or n old of a sunken vessel, it
is as if you were in sea Of inlS-blacker
than the darkest midnight. Divers do
| their business by the touch, and that is
| why some of then. that are tirst-rate
| bridgemen are no use around wreck,
| others know just where to put their while
hands on any part of vessel, ana can
detach and recover the machinery and
other valuable portions"
"The deepest I ever went down?
| guess III was In lake Erie, when old man
| Quigly, a Canadian, and myself, we nj
down 1865 feet to bring up the safe OF the
steamer Atlantic, | don't know how
much was in it, but of course they said
it was million. ] once did bring up q
million though-and five of them
at that, all gold. 1t was when the City
OF Baltimore sank in Charleston har-
bour ten or eleven years ago, and she
was bringing in So ,000 900 English gold
as the proceeds of the sale of some rail
way bonds. When they opened the
safe, emptied the bags, and counted the
coin it was piled up like wheat in bin
and was the most money ever saw al
one time in my life."
'Divers have to take good many
chances, though, and are often knocked
out without minutes warning. A
break in the air pump, kink in the all
tube, the fall of a rock, or the one hun
dred and one things that may and dc
! happen, go to lessen the number every
year. II the air gives out while they
are working at any depth, the life Is at
once crushed out OF them, they are
ghastly looking objects when brought
to the surface. Generally, the back
part OF the head and the front OF the
thighs are burst open, but death is al
ways sudden.
I've seen good many killed, and in
different ways. The worst Wa!