supplied with air by
a separate tube from the reservoir in the same way as if it were a
separate human diver. The Henkie and Davis lamp burns, on the other
hand, entirely without air, by means of certain acids. That of Siebe
and Gorman is an electric-lamp. Both are said to be effective and
economical.

Putting on the new dress, our hero was soon ready to descend, with the
lamp burning in his hand.

"There are three men down just now," said Baldwin as he was about to
screw on the mouth-piece, "two of 'em bein' your old friends Maxwell and
Rooney Machowl. They've been down about three hours, and won't be up
for an hour yet. See that you don't foul them in your wanderings below.
The other man, Jem Hogg--an' he's well named--is the laziest chap I
ever had to do with. I do believe he sometimes goes to sleep under
water!"

"Is that possible?" asked Edgar.

"Possible? Ay, I've caught 'em takin' a snooze before now. Why, I've
known a man _smoke_ under water. There was one of our fellows once got
a comrade to let him keep his pipe in his mouth while he screwed on the
front-glass; you see he couldn't have put it in his mouth _after_ that
was fixed; but he was well paid. For a time he smoked away well enough,
and the draught of air carried off the smoke through the escape-valve,
but an extra strong puff sent a spark out o' the bowl, which went
straight into his eye. He spat out the pipe, and nearly drove in the
glasses in his useless efforts to get at his eye, and then he tugged at
the lines like fury, and, when we got him on deck he danced about like
wildfire, as if he'd been shod with indyrubber instead of bein' weighted
with lead. We thought he had gone mad, and held him fast till we got
his helmet off. It cost him a month in hospital before that eye was
cured."

"That being the case, I won't smoke while below," said Edgar, laughing;
"screw away."

The glass was fastened, and our hero quickly disappeared under the sea.

CHAPTER SIX.

A SUNKEN WRECK INSPECTED, SUNDRY WONDERFUL DOINGS UNDER WATER RECORDED,
AND VARIOUS PLANS SUCCESSFULLY CARRIED OUT.

The vessel which Edgar Berrington had left his native element to inspect
was a large barque. It had gone to the bottom only a few months after
having been launched. The cargo, being intended for the Cape of Good
Hope colony, was of a miscellaneous character, and some of it was of
course ruined by water, but much remained almost uninjured, or only a
lit