The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1906-01-03
THE MYSTERIES OF
THE OCEAN BED
q q q O q @ a q

tered hulls, gaping decks and broken
masts.'
No scenes OF horror can he sur
passed by the awful panoramas of
death and disaster which have been
witnessed by Engineer de Plury iii
the course of his professional expert
ence as diver.
"In the vicinity of Ostend." he re-
lates, Il was requested once 10 ex-
anime the wreck of vessel which had
sunk not long ago. This was the oc-
casion upon which | was assailed by
a veritable horde of those giant crabs
Of which l have already spoken. 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 a jaw of steel had it
not been protected by the powerful
armoring of my diving dress. | had
kind Of sword I'm my hand. with
which / succeeded in killing two of
these monsters, the shells of which
still possess. All objects at the bot
tom of the sea are covered with kind
OF curious powder, and terrible
gloom and silence prevails. What
scene of melancholy The floor of the
ocean is strewn with bones not few
of them of human origin! a very sin
gular fact which l 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 moment when the dis
aster occurred, and had thus passed
| practically instantaneously from sleep
to death. So far they had not been
bitten or gnawed by any fish. as most
of the hatchways were closed. They
still appeared as if asleep. There
they lay. wrapped in q calm and mys-
| terious slumber. / approached, and,
climbing down TO the hatchways,
| hand. the flesh seemed TO dissolve and
vanish under my hand. leaving moth
ing but a grinning skeleton.
And the treasures OF the seas!
Millions alone are engulfed not far
from Nigo. Personally. l have never
| been there. but one of my men once
went down there clad in the old diving
dress. This was before had invented
my present dress. The unhappy man
died almost directly he reached the
surface again; but he had had time
to see several galleons lying at the
bottom, with the masts still standing,
and the timberwork still sound. These,
Of course, were some of the famous
treasure ships; but | do not think it
would be possible to recover them.
All metals would have been destroyed
by rust by now. as they have been
below water ever since 1907.
81 have seen personally the vessel
which, about 1908. was conveying
Napoleon's treasures to Holland, but
it was wrecked ell route and sank
with one hundred millions of gold on
board: of these. fifty-six millions have
been recovered. but the remainder, as
L have said. is still in the bosom of the
ocean. The Prince of Monaco states
that he has found near Cyprus a gal
bottom of the sea. This is where sub
marine boats will have such a great
future before them. as, by their aid,
we shall one day be able to explore
unknown deep sea grottoes, rich in
unknown forms OF life, vaults full of
untold wealth, and the tomb of many
4 poor sailor."-Scientifc American.