DOWN TO THE DEEP SEA

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 902, 16 November 1956, Page 13

DOWN TO THE DEEP SEA

IN BALLOON AND BATHYSCAPHE, by Auguste Piccard; Cassell, English price 25/-. PROFESSOR PICCARD would reject with disdain the label "eccentric" even when his every action would appear ea ---- Tr J

to invite it. Perhaps it would be, better to say he has a strongly marked individuality. "Exploration," he says, "has become the sport of scientists." So it has. But they usually pursue it in laboratories, The whole earth is Piccard’s laboratory, and the unexplored frontiers of the upper atmosphere and the ocean depths alike appeal to him. Until too much is known of them. In this book we havea lively account of the first balloon into the stratosphere, but this is merely hors d’oevres. The main theme concerns the ocean depths and their exploration. Piccard gives us details of construction and finance of the bathyscaphe, details of testing and pere formance, and backs his mass of infortation with technical appendices. He even acknowledges all those who have assisted him financially in a way that Everest expedition readers will recognise and appreciate. One cannot but admire the admirably simple solutions he found for all the new problems facing him. But then, he saw them as simple problems. Perhaps they were. And perhaps Piccard has a simple and powerful mind. The sort of mind, however, which does not consort well with other minds, as the book bears ample witness. The remarks about (continued on next page)

BO KS

(continued from previous page) Cosyns and certain engineers of the French Navy are a little warmer than mere self-defence would justify. All the same, if the translation had been just a little more lively the book would have been an excellent "true adventure" story for all boys born since 1856. This is emphasised by the ab-

sence of an index.

J. D.

McD.