The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-03-01

lake which his needle would show. We
went out on the lake In fine boat and
moved around for three days at a point
about eight or ten miles from the town
Of Erie, but although 1 searched diligent-
ly we failed TO strike anything Neither
boat, cargo, nor any sort of wreckage
could 1 find. Every time 1 came I'D de-
lespondent however, he would claim that
the instrument had given a fresh clue
and we would move the boat and have
another try. Nothing could idampen his
enthusiasm Finally I lost faith IN the
copper, and as I had to stay down be-
ban TO fish
Fish are always interested in q diver
They are inquisitive, and come as close
as they dare, swimming of so as TO get
new view and returning again and
again, as If fascinated. The striped bass
swimming about me on that occasion
were famous great fellows. 1 would wait
until they got on level with my helmet
and were looking me straight in the eyes.
and then spear them. I spiked seven of
them in succession and tied them 10 the
haulingup rope with the apparatus meant
TO secure the copper. When l came up
with the great catch the boatmen cheered
me. Even the scientist Has induced TO
eat some of the bass but those fish stood
for my total profit on that trip. My en-
ployer had risked all he owned in per-
fecting his instrument and manning and
hiring the boat. He had expected to make
handsome sum from the copper. He
proved to me that his invention would
find a gold piece flung out hap-hazard in
y; hut -
good to ind copper that had been sunk
for thirty years in fourteen fathoms of
water.
a few months ago" the diver con-
tinued, 1--WE had an interesting piece of
wreck. A bOat-Ioad of dynamite had been
sunk in the North River, and the govern
ment wanted the stuff got rid Of Two
different companies, who had tackled the
job before we got it, backed cut after a
preliminary investigation. The dynamite
was packed in with a 6o0-ton cargo of
coal headed for Albany. There were 100
boxes of gunpowder in with 1.-The rest
What became of the lighters captain and
crew is all speculation, but it is presumed
that they were smugglers carrying the
dynamite in that way to dodge the flw
as TO explosives. They may have sus-
pected that their game was known, and
so sunk the cargo as the best way of COW
ering up their tracks. Had they been
caught it meant some years in the peni-
tertiary. We raised the dynamite, 196
boxes of fifty pounds each, and buried it
on government property, on the left bank
of the river. We left the coal where it
was, but we made use of some of it for
running our boats. Some time when we
find boatman hard up for fuel we'll give
him the tip as TO where he can get it,
The veteran diver of New York, fully
seventy-six years old, gave up his South
Street quarters lately and retired to the
home Of his son, near Evansville. He has
made his living under the waters of the
rivers and bays in this vicinity for nearly
fifty years, and is still robust and as
straight as an arrow. He had served
with distinction in many naval battles of
the civil war and whenever a diver was
needed to examine the hull of a war-ship
at the navy yard, he was sent
for. All the principal wrecks along the
coast. from Maine to Hatteras were
known to him, and he has accumulated
many curious anu interesting relics in his
old office in the shadow of the bridge pier
where he has been for thirty-three years
OLI - F. GUNBY.