ircher, who might appropriately be styled a father of lies! Here is
_his_ fabrication:--

In the time of Frederick of Sicily there lived a man named Nicolo
Pesce,--Nicholas the Fish. This man's powers seem to have been
decidedly superhuman. He was evidently an amphibious animal. He
appears to have acted the part of ocean-postman in these old times, for
it is related of him that he used to carry letters for the king far and
wide about the Mediterranean. On one occasion a vessel found him out of
sight of land in the discharge of ocean-postal duty--bearing despatches
of the king from Sicily to Calabria. They took him on board and had a
chat with him. It is not said that they smoked a friendly pipe with him
or gave him a glass of grog, but we think it probable that they did!
After a little rest and refreshment Nicholas the Fish bade them
good-bye, jumped overboard, and continued his voyage. The end of this
poor man was very sad. The king, being seized with an insane desire to
know something about the depths of the terrible gulf of Charybdis,
offered Nicholas a golden cup if he would dive down and explore them.
He dived accordingly, remained below nearly an hour, and brought back a
glowing account of the wonders and horrors of the seething whirlpool.
The king, far from being satisfied, became more than ever desirous of
knowledge. He asked Nicholas to dive again, and tempted him with the
offer of another and larger cup, as well as a purse of gold. The poor
Fish, after some hesitation, again dived into the gulf and was never
more heard of!

We don't wonder at it. The greatest wonder is, that Nicolo Pesce ever
obtained a place in the encyclopaedias of the world. From the fact,
however, that he has been thus rescued from oblivion, we conclude, that
although much that is said of him is false, the man himself was not a
myth, but a fact; that he was a man of the Captain Webb type, who
possessed extraordinary powers of swimming, perhaps of diving, to the
extent, it may be, of nearly three minutes, and that he possibly lost
his life by rashly venturing into the vortex of some dangerous
whirlpool. That he did not use diving apparatus of any kind is clear
from the fact that nothing is said about such apparatus, which, had it
really existed, would have claimed as much attention and caused as much
talk as did the man himself.

The earliest authentic records we have of the use of diving apparatus
belong to the beginning o