r ears with cotton soaked in oil, to relieve the pressure; some do
an' some don't. I never do myself. It's said to relieve the pressure
of air on the ears, but my ears are strong. Anyway you won't want it in
this water.--Now for the dress, boys."

The two assistants--with mouths expanded from ear to ear--here advanced
with the strong india-rubber garment whose legs, feet, body, and arms
are, as we have already said, all in one piece. Pushing his feet in at
the upper opening, Rooney writhed, thrust, and wriggled himself into it,
being ably assisted by his attendants, who held open the sleeves for him
and expanded the tight elastic cuffs, and, catching the dress at the
neck, hitched it upwards so powerfully as almost to lift their patient
off his legs. Next, came a pair of _outside_ stockings and canvas
overalls or short trousers, both of which were meant to preserve the
dress-proper from injury. Having been got into all these things, Rooney
was allowed to sit down while his attendants each put on and buckled a
boot with leaden soles--each boot weighing about twenty pounds.

"A purty pair of dancin' pumps!" remarked Rooney, turning out his toes,
while Baldwin put on his breast-plate, after having drawn up the inner
collar of the dress and tied it round his neck with a piece of spare
yarn.

The breast-plate was made of tinned copper. It covered part of the
back, breast, and shoulders of the diver, and had a circular neck, to
which the helmet was to be ultimately screwed. It rested on the _inner_
collar of the dress, and the _outer_ collar--of stout india-rubber--was
drawn over it. In this outer collar were twelve holes, corresponding to
twelve screws round the edge of the breast-plate. When these holes had
been fitted over their respective screws, a breast-plate-band, in four
pieces, was placed over them and screwed tight by means of nuts--thus
rendering the connection between the dress and the breast-plate
perfectly water-tight. It now only remained to screw the helmet to the
circular neck of the breast-plate. Previously, however, a woollen
night-cap was drawn over the poor man's head, well down on his ears, and
Rooney looked--as indeed he afterwards admitted that he felt--as if he
were going to be hanged. He thought, however, of the proverb, that a
man who is born to be drowned never can be hanged, and somehow felt
comforted.

The diving helmet is made of tinned copper, and much too large for the
largest