sed to be constructed; and this they launched over the
side, allowing it to hang plumb up and down, well secured, just abaft
the main rigging. This was for Cunningham to descend by; and upon
looking over the side I saw that it reached to within about four feet of
the surface of the oyster bed. The getting of Cunningham into his suit,
and the arranging of all the preliminaries, such as the rigging of a
derrick wherewith to hoist to the surface the nets of oysters after
Cunningham had filled them, the hauling of the longboat alongside to
receive the first load, and so on, kept us busy for a full half-hour,
during which the skipper paced to and fro, urging us to hurry, and
gnawing his finger nails to the quick in his excitement and impatience.

But at length everything was ready, even to the shovel which Cunningham
was to use for shovelling the oysters into the nets; and with the upper
end of the air hose securely made fast to the main rigging, close to
where I stood with the signal line coiled in my hands ready for paying
out, and with a stout sword bayonet girt about his waist as a defence
against the possible attack of prowling sharks, the amateur diver was
assisted to climb the rail and get his feet upon the topmost rung of the
ladder, after which he was left to his own devices. We had taken the
precaution to send a good man aloft in a boatswain's chair, bent to the
end of the gaff-topsail halyards, to keep a lookout for sharks, and he
had reported none in sight; we therefore hoped that we should not suffer
any very serious interruption from them, and Cunningham went over the
side with the utmost confidence, I keeping my eye on him as he
cautiously descended the ladder rung by rung, and paying out the signal
line in such a manner as always to maintain a very light strain upon it.

At length I saw him step off the bottom rung of the ladder and gingerly
lower himself to the surface of the oyster bed, having reached which he
gave a single tug of his signal line to indicate that he was all right.
Then, after pausing for a moment, apparently to take a good look round,
he cast off the shovel from the end of the line by which it had been
lowered, and proceeded methodically to shovel the oysters, just as they
came, into one of the nets, which had also been lowered within his
reach. Ten minutes of steady work now ensued, at the end of which he
gave the signal to hoist away, and up came our first spoils, probably
about five