Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1892-01-01

hsh, but the next they swarmed around.
There was quite variety but no very
large ones The wreck was not In deep
water and | could see them watching me.
All fish turn their heads towards you and
If you keepistill they will touch you with
their noses. In coming up they will fol-
low you to the surface. | have never
known fish to attack diver. | have seen
sharks 60 past me IN South American
waters, b1t they never lntertered with me.
In 1863 went with the Burnside expedi-
ton to Brazil and worked for eleven
months on the wreck of the San Pedro de
4 lcantara, an eighty-gun Spanish 1nan-of-
war that sailed from Cadiz in 1915 with
Is 600 men aboard to quell the revolt of
the Spanish provinces on the Main and
vas wrecked league off the Island of
Margsrita In ten and half fathoms (66
feet of water. In addition to provisions
and munitions of war she carried an I'M
mense amount of treasure. We recovered
all her guns and little money.
| don't take much stock In the proba-
blllty of recovering the long lost millions
at the bottom of the sea that we hear
about every once in while. | have been
on several expeditions for such treasure
trove, but never knew one to pan out veil
| have brought up coins and jewelry, but
have never been able to find the bulk of
the wealth that was supposed to be there
Whether the barrels of solid gold sink
away down in the sand and the few coins
that we occasionally pick up are some
loose change that the captain had in his
pocket | can t say.
| assisted in recovering about $50 900 of
silver ore in New York bay, but that was
from barge that had been run do sn by
the steamship Vile de Paris.
The tide is not perceptible twenty feet
below the surface of the ocean. The color
of the water changes wonderfully. Some
times it is just as blue as blue can be, and
then again 1t will be a lovely green. |
think the sediment has a great influence
on the color.
People, especially young girls, often ask
me 1t 1T is not very strange and beautiful
at the bottom of the ocean. Ii anyone
can see anything beautiful in carpet
| about six inches thick, composed of shiny
sediment, sand ard seaweed, why the
beautiful is all there.
Working in rivers is far more danger
Gus than operating at sea. There is more
risk, too, in mechanical work, building
bridges, ETC., than In wrecking, but pre-
| iSA oilS iOI biCI' i1auSCI ulNlnB Is
imaginary than real if one is careful about
the small matters as we'll as the big. Once
| discovered that something was the mat
ter with my suit, but | could not find out
for long time. AS soon as [ entered the
water the pressure was too great and the
supply of air limited tried it repeated
ly and every time | had to signal to be
hauled up. After repeated examinations
of my suit and the pump | found that a
grain of sand had lodged in the valve of
the helmet, thus keeping it open all the
time and allowing tie air to escape.
Men engaged in this business live to a
good age. ! knew one who was still,
working after he had turned 70.
Mr.. Urquhart is a we'll man about so
years old, gslightly above the medium
height, muscular, but without any super
fluous flesh. He is native of this city
Philadelphia Times.