ch we may safely explore the profoundest depths of the
ocean to which the _Flying Fish_ can penetrate. The armour is, as you
see, composed of a number of small scales or plates of aethereum, and is
so constructed that, whilst it is perfectly flexible, permitting the
utmost freedom of movement to the wearer, it is also absolutely water-
tight and incompressible, no matter how great the exterior pressure to
which it is subjected. The wearer of it will consequently be perfectly
protected at all points from the enormous water pressure; and he will be
able to breathe in comfort, his air being supplied to him at the normal
atmospheric pressure. In equipping himself the diver will first don the
india-rubber diving-dress in the usual way. Then he will assume this
double-haversack, the larger chamber of which, worn on the back, will
contain a supply of air, whilst the smaller of the two, worn on the
chest, is charged with a supply of chemicals for the purification of the
air after it has been breathed. The two are connected together by a
pair of flexible tubes, as you may perceive, and the mere expansion and
contraction of the chest, in the act of breathing, sets in motion the
simple apparatus which produces the necessary circulation of air between
the two chambers. Having secured this haversack in position the diver
next dons his body armour, and straps about his waist this belt, with
its electric lamp and its dagger. The dagger, as you see, is double-
bladed; it has a haft of insulating material, and the blades have
connected to them this insulated wire at the point where the blades and
the handle unite. You thus have a weapon which, on being plunged into
the body of a foe, not only inflicts a severe wound, but also
administers an electric shock of such terrible intensity as must result
in instant death. The last portion of the armour to be assumed is the
helmet, on the top of which is securely fixed an electric lamp, which,
with the aid of the one at the belt, will give us, I imagine, as much
light as we are likely to need.

"Having donned our armour we pass out of this chamber into the next,
which I call the chamber of egress, carefully closing the door behind
us."

The professor, suiting the action to the word, ushered his companions
into the next chamber, closing the door behind him, and they found
themselves in a small room some ten feet square by seven feet in height.
This room, in common with the diving-room,