ADVENTURES OF A DIVER

Dunstan Times, Issue 1295, 24 December 1886, Page 3

ADVENTURES OF A DIVER

At one time I worked down info the Gulf of Mexico. The first coral I raised was in Goloche. Knocking round there, I heard of the loss of the schooner Foam 'The (ird. imt» md three men pot nored. hist ike bis daughter an J ■ !ii t. ; /non >•. lalinig to r.p» it she cot.id ’o'; raisej

A ftei-' wo*< i. sj w 11V h”s wo Railed over Ireraud - 1t wan a. lovely. Sunday .morning wo struck lier. She lay in GOft of | walor, ou a bottom- us white as the . moo’i. Booking down, I could see lier loaning over ou one sh'e upon the coral reef. I got do Wu on her ..and siw she’d com a great gap in the reef when she ran against it. • Thehiainmast was gone and hung by the /ore I clambered up ; I saw a whole shoal of fish playing in and out of the hatehei. ’ First i went to look for the bodies, for I never like to work when there’s any of them about., b’indiu’ the fo’casde empty, I went to tho two little state cabins. It was rather nark and [ had to fool in the lower bunks. There was. nothing in die first, and in the other the door was locked. I forced it open and shot back the lock with my adze. It flew open and out something fell right against me. I felt that it was a woman’s body. I was not exactly frightened, but it shook -me rather. I flung it from me, and went out in the light a hit until I got hold, of myself. Then 1 turned back and bi ought her out—.. ■ poor thing 1 she’d been very pretty, and so I carried her in my arms ; with her white face nestling against my shoulder/sire seemed as if she was only sleeping. , I made her fast to the line as c irefully as I could to send her up, and the fish played about her as if they were sorry she was going. At last [ gave the signal, and she went slow'y up, her hair floating .round her nead like a pillow of golden seaweed. That was the. only body I found there, and I managed after to raiso pretty considerable of the cargo. One of my expeditions was among the silver banks of the Antilles, the loveliest place I ever saw, where v tJio white coral grows in curious treelike shapes. As, I stopped along the bottom it seemed, as if I were in : a frosted forest. Here and there trailed long fronds of green and crimson seaweed. Silver-bellied fish flashed about among the deep brown and purple* sea ferns which rose high as ray head. As far • as f could see all round the transparent, water were-different colored leaves, and on the floor piles of shells' bright in. color, that it seemed as if 1 had' stumbled on a place where they kept a st'ick of broken rainbows. 1 could" not work for a bit, and had a sort of determination to sit down.'acd wait for a mermaid. T guess if those seagirls live any where, theysdeot that spot After walking the inside out of half-an-hour, I thought I had better go to work and blast for treasure. A . little bit on from where I sat were the • remains of a treasure ship. It was a Britisher, I think, and coral had formed about her, or what was left of her. The coral on the bottom and round her showed black spots. That meant a deposit of either iron or silver 1 made fairly good hauls every time I went down, and sold one piece I found '-, to Bainum of New York.’ ;• After I left there I had, a- ■Culioes-r — adventure with a shark. A was down on a rotten rook. A man never feels comfortable on them; he can’t tell "• what big creature may be hiding under ” the huge quarter deck seV leaves which grow their. The first part of the time . I was visited by a porcupine lish, which kept sticking its quills up and bobbing in front of my bonnet. Soon after 1 saw a big shadow fall across me, and, looking up there was an infernal shuk playing about my tubing. . It makes you feel chilly in tho back when their about. He came down to me slick as [ looked up, I made at him and he sheered off. For an hour he woiked at it, until T could stand it no longer If you can keep your head level, it’s all right, and your preity sure if they’re not on you sharp. This ugly brut was 20 feet long. I should think, for when I lay down all my ;length on the bottom, he stretched a considerable way ahead of me, and I could see him beyond my teet. Theti I waited. They must over a bit, and my lying down bothered him. He swam over me three or four times, and skulked oil to a big thicket seaweed to consider. I knew he’d come back when he’d settled his mind. It. seemed a long time waiting for him. At last he came viciously over me, but like the time before, too far from nay arms. The next time I had my chance, and ripped him with my knife as neatly as • I could. A shark always remembers he’s cut, so off this fellow goes.- It is a curious thing, too, that all' sharks about will follow in the trail lie,leaves-. I got on my hands and knees, and as • ho swam of I noticed four dark shadows slip after him I saw no more that time. They did not like ray company —Captain Royton,