Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1906-08-31

character. This takes place at a
depth of about 1904 yards; here
their nature changes entirely, anu
they assume the forms and consti-
tutional notifications necessary to
enable them to bear the enormous
pressure to which they are subjected
at the depth where they move and
have their being.
"Hitherto it has beeo quite im-
possible to obtain living specimens
of these submarine creatures, as
they reached the surface with their
volume qnadrupled, due to the re-
duction of pressure. All these
creatures are carnivorous, and their
capacious maws not unfrequently
serve as the tombs of unfortunate
sailors whose ship has gone to the
bottom, and their bodies gradually
sink deeper and deeper, while the
formidable pressure to which they are
Subjected in an increasing intensity
soon smashes all their bones, aud final.
ly crrshes the corpses quite fiat.
"Oae curious fact attending these
submarine explorations is afforded
by the light, which forms strange
blend Of greeu and violet light, the
color being n little similar to that
of the caverns which are to be seen
III cebergs. Alta depth uf 80 Yards
the light begius to get more and
more dIffused, aud the sun viewed
through the mass of superincum bent
water appears like reddish Opaque
glob,; but-aud this is somewhat
strange-when sheltered from the
rays of the sun (behind rock, for
iustance) the stars become visible
even at midday.
zone day, just about noon, l saw
never-to-be-forgotten sight at
depth of 1919 feet. The sun was
right at the zenith. The bottom
upon which | stood consisted of fine
white sand, and the reflection of the
light upon the snowy carpet gave
me the impression of standing upon
a plain of molten gold. At a depth
of 22G feet the obscurity is complete;
at 327 feet the darkness is impene
trable,1 and it is necessary to have
recourse to electricity for purposes
of vision. / use electric lamps of
10000 candle-power, but even these
cannot diffuse their light beyond q
radius of 90 feet. A most tragic
spectacle is then presented by sun
ken vessels, broken boats, splintered
hulls, gaping decks, and broken
masts."
No scenes of horror can be sur
passed by the awful panoramas of
death and disaster which have been
witnessed by Engineer de Plury in
the course of his professional exper-
ience as a diver.
ain the vicinity of Ostend," he
relates, "I was requested once to ex-
anime the wreck of vessel which
had sunk not long ago. This was
the occasion upon which / was as
sailed by veritable horde of giant
crabs. They were at the time busy
devouring the corpses of the dead
sailors. One of these monsters seized
me by the leg, which would have
been crushed, as if squeezed by Jaw
of steel, had it not been protected
by the powerful armoring of nv
diving dress. / had a kind of
sword in my hand, with which /
succeeded in killing two of these
monsters, the shells of which | still
possess. All objects at the bottom
of the sea are covered with a kind
of curious powder, and a terrible
gloom and silence prevails. What a
scene of melancholy! The floor of
the ocean is strewn with bones, not
a few of them of human s..sin! AL
very singular fact which / have
observed is that the sea, for certain
period of time, keeps bodies in a
perfect state of preservation. once
visited the hull of vessel which had
gone down with all hands. The
crew were mostly asleep at the mo-
ment when the disaster occurred, and
had thus passed practically instan-
tanecusly from sleep to death. So
far they had not been bitten or gnaw-
ed by any fish, as most of the hatch
ways were closed. The men still
appeared as if asleep. There they lay,
wrapped in calm and mysterious
slumber. | approached, and climb
ing down to the hatchways touched
one of the corpses with my hand; the
flesh seemed to dissolve and vanish
under my hand, leaving nothing but