t seemed to me as if we had descended many
furlongs, though we had not got beyond ten fathoms: I could not get quit
of the idea, though I arranged my thoughts in the process of
calculation. Jenkins had now let go my arm, as he saw that I was able to
sit without danger of falling; and the German was busy peering through
his bushy eyebrows down into the deep, as if he expected soon "to see
the land." I almost instinctively gazed down for the same object, and it
was not without an effort at discrimination by the power of my judgment
that I discovered myself seeking a vision of the bottom of the sea, as
if it had been a haven for a shipwrecked mariner in distress. While my
eyes were thus fixed on the waters--in which I could see nothing but the
swarms of fishes flying past, or reeling in the confusion of terror--I
was startled, almost to falling off the bench, by a loud reverberating
clang on the side of the bell. My first impression was, that the bell
had struck on a rock; and I turned fearfully to seek the eye of Jenkins.
He held the large hammer in his hand with which he had given the stroke.
He told me that he wanted more air, and that this was the signal to the
workers of the air-pump. His eye was fixed on the air holes, with which
the pipes communicated. I thought he appeared alarmed; he exchanged a
look with Vanderhoek, and the eye of the latter was soon also fixed on
the same spot. We were yet still descending, and the German, turning
round, pointed down. I followed his finger, and saw a thick, hazy-like
appearance, as if the waters were troubled, and masses of long sea-weed
brushed against the rim of the bell. Vanderhoek immediately seized the
hammer, rang two loud peals, and the motion downwards ceased. We hung
suspended in the sea, I know not how many fathoms down. A loud hissing
sound came from the air-valves; but it was every moment interrupted, as
if some part of the apparatus failed in its continuous working. The eyes
of both Jenkins and Vanderhoek were again intensely fixed upon the
holes; it was too manifest to me that they both saw something wrong in
the working of the air pumps, though they said nothing to me; and,
indeed, I was so much affected by their ominous looks that I could put
no question to them.

"Is there not an under current here, Karl?" said Jenkins, attempting to
appear composed.

"Ja," replied Vanderhoek; "see, there is von gut sign. The meer-weeds
are drifting to the east; and see, there