ry great depth.

He knew his work. With the long hook, sponge after sponge was torn from
its clung-to home on the slippery rocks, and quickly popped into the
bag. He always moved backwards. If anything stopped him, rock, wreck, or
floating weeds, he could turn slowly and carefully around, and see what
it was. But should he meet an object suddenly at the fore, it might
break even his shielded glass. Then he must immediately give the signal
to be raised aloft.

Divers must begin by going down only a little way under the water, as it
takes great skill and long practice to be able to go safely into deep
water. A diver has about him a coil of line connected with the ladder,
which he unwinds as he moves away; but by winding it about him again,
he can find his way back to the ladder.

If two divers go down at the same time, I notice they take great care
not to let their air-lines or life-lines cross each other's, and so get
entangled. It might be a very serious affair to get them mixed.

I see that divers may go down from either a barge, a sailing vessel, or
a large yacht, but there must be a deck that can hold the necessary
machines and rigging to help them in their work. By casting down heavy
pieces of lead, the sailor-Folk can "sound," or tell the distance to the
bottom of the sea. The diver's line must always be twice the length of
the distance he goes down.

I did not find this all out at once. Oh, by no means, but by not running
away I gradually learned a great deal. And I was so glad I saw the queer
performance! The frightened fishes were not quick to come back to their
playground, where such a looking object had come swinging down, and when
he came again the next day, and the next, I had the place to myself, and
watched while he pretty well cleared that region of its fine, valuable
sponges.

The next time I saw a diver it was in deeper water. I was sporting to
and fro at another time when there was just such a panic among the
fishes as I had seen before, and just such a scramble.

Down, down came the fearsome looking object, while I mixed myself in
with a mass of sea-flowers, and keeping perfectly still, was not
noticed. The diver's dress was much the same as the other's had been; he
went backwards in the same cautious way, but instead of a long-handled
hook, he carried only a queer bag that was let down to him by ropes.

The bag was deep, and had a frame along the top, with a scraper fastened
to it. And what