armor.

(6

a

DOWN AMONG THE DEAD MEN-A DIVER'S STORY. fellow whose steadiness and dauntless courage had several times

before been fearfully tested. The life of one who explores the mysteries of the sea is not It was a calm and pleasant day, but the southern and eastern more perilous than fascinating ; the charm of terror hangs horizon looked deceitful. Small, suspicious clouds were around it, and the interminable succession of exciting events gathered there, ill of aspect, and "sneaking fellows, regular renders it dear to its professor. Not to the common diver of the hangdog fellows," as my comrades remarked to me. NeverEast, who can remain but for a fraction of time beneath the wave theless, we were not to be put off by a little cloudiness in the and grope fearfully among rugged ocean mounds, but to the sky, but boldly prepared to venture. adept in the civilised mode of diving, who, in his protective

So deep was the water that no vestige of a ship's mast re armor, may remain submerged for hours, and wander with im- mained above the surface to point out the resting-piach of the punity for miles along those unknown regions far below the Marmion. We were compelled, therefore, to select the scene sea; to him are laid open the horrors of the watery world, and of operations according to the best of our ability. Down went he may gaze upon such scenes as Arabian story tells us were the sails of our schooner, and Parker and I put on ovr diving presented to the fearful eyes of Abdallah. To the diver the

We fixed on our helmets tightly and screwed on the most thrilling occurrences of the upper world seem frivolous ; | hose. One by one each clumsy article was adjusted. The for, in his memory, he retains thoughts that may well chill the weights were hung and we were ready. soul with dread.

" It looks terrible blackish, Burton,” said Parker to me. I am a diver-a diver from cboice--and I am proud of my "Oh," I replied, gaily, "it's only a little mist-all right!" profession. Where is such courage required as is needed here ? " Ah !” He uttered a low exclamation, which sounded hollow It is nothing to be a soldier ; a diver, however+but I forbear. from his cavernous belmet. I well tell my story and leave others to judge concerning it. “All ready," I cried, in a loud voice, which they, however,

An appalling shipwreck occurred, not long ago, upon the could not easily distinguish. Then, making the proper sign, i wildest part of the coast of Newfoundland. The tidings of this was swung over the side. calamity reached the ears of thousands ; but, amid the crowd of Dovyn we went, I first and Parker close behind me. It did accidents which followed in quick succession, it was soon for- not take a long time for us to reach the bottom. We fount gotten. Not by us, however. We found that the vessel had ourselves upon what seemed a broad plain, sloping downwar i sunk upon a spot where the water's depth was by no means towards the south, and rising slightly towards the north. great, and that a daring man might easily reach her.

Lojking forward, a dim, black object arose, which our expeShe was a steamer called the Marmion, and had been seen rienced eyes knew to be a lofty rock. going suddenly down, without an instant's warning, by some I motioned to Parker that we should proceed there. I canfishermen near by. She had, undoubtedly, struck a hidden not tell the strangeness of the sensation felt by one who first rock, and had thus been, in one moment, destroyed. I spoke walks the bottom of the sea. to my associates of the plan, and they approved it. No time There are a thousand objects fitted to excite astonishment, was lost in making the necessary preparations, and a short even in the mind of him who has dared the deed a hundred time beheld us embarked in our small schooner for the sunken times. All around us lay the plain covered by water ; but here ship. There were six of us, and we anticipated extraordinary the eye could not pierce far away, as in the upper air, for the success.

water in the distance grew opaque, and seemed to fade away I was the leader, and generally ventured upon any exploit in into misty darkness. There was no sound, except the incessant which there was uncommon danger. Not that the others were gurgle which was produced by the escape of air from the breast cowards ; on the contrary, they were all brave men, but I was valve, and the noise caused by our passage through the waters. gifted with a coolness and a presence of mind of which the We walked on at a good pace, for this armor, which seems so others were destitute. As two persons were needed in order to clumsy up above, is excellent below, and offers little inconexplore the Marmion, I had selected as my companion a young "venience to the practised wearer.

Vol X., No. 2-11

water.

Fishes in crowds were around us. Fishes of every shape and scene can be so dreadful as to paralyse the soul of a practised size met our eyes, no matter where they turned. They swam diver. I will see for myself. swiftly by us; they sported in the water above us; they raced I walked aft. I came to the cabin door. I entered the and chased one another in every direction. Here a shoal of saloon, but saw nothing. A feeling of contempt came to me. porpoises tumbled along in clumsy gambols; there a grampus Parker shall not come with me again, I thought. Yet I was might be seen rising slowly to the surface ; here an immense awestruck. Down in the depths of the sea there is only silence. number of smaller fish flashed past us ; there some huge ones, Ob, how solemn! I paced the long saloon, which had echoed with ponderous forms, floated in the water lazily. Sometimes with the shrieks of the drowning passengers. Ah! there are three or four placed themselves directly before us, staring at us, thoughts which sometimes fill the soul, which are only felt by and solemnly working their gills. There they would remain those to whom scenes of sublimity are familiar. Thus thinktill we came close up to them, and then, with a start, they ing, I walked to the after cabin, and entered. would dart away.

Oh, God of heaven ! All this time we were walking onward, along the bottom of Had not my hand clenched the door with a grasp, which the sea, while above us, like a black cloud in the sky, we could mortal terror had made convulsive, I should have fallen to the see our boat slowly moving onward upon the surface of the floor. I stood nailed to the spot : for there before me stood a

And now, not more than a hundred yards before us, crowd of people-men and women-caught in the last deathwe could see the towering form of that ebony rock which had at struggle by the overwhelming waters, and fastened to the spot, first greeted our eyes from afar. As yet, we could not be cer- each in the position in which death had found him. Each one tain that this was the place where the Marmion had struck. had sprung from his chair at the shock of the sinking ship, But soon a round black object became discernible, as we glanced and, with one common emotion, all had started for the door. at the rocky base.

But the waters of the sea had been too swift for them. Lo! Parker touched my arm and pointed. I signed assent, and then-some wildly grasping the table, others the beams, others we moved on more quickly.

the sides of the cabin--there they all stood. A few moments elapsed ; we had come nearer to the rock. Near the door was a crowd of people heaped one upon another The black object now looked like the stern of a vessel whose -some on the floor, others rushing over them--all seeking hull lay there.

madly to gain the outlet. There was one who sought to clamSuddenly Parker touched me again, and pointed upward.ber over the table, and still was there, holding on to an iron Following the direction of his hand, I looked up and saw the post. So strong was each convulsive grasp, so fierce the strugupper surface of the water all foaming and in motion. There gle of each with death, that their hold had not yet been relaxwas a momentary thrill through my heart, but it passed over. ed, but each one stood and looked frantically at the door. We were in a dangerous condition. A storm was coming on ! To the door-good God! To me, to me they were looking!

But should we turn back now, when we were so near the They were glancing at me; all those dreadful, those terrible object of our search ? Already it lay before us—we were close eyes! Eyes in which the fire of life had been displaced by the beside it. No, I would not. I signalled to Parker to go for- chilling gleam of death. Eyes which still glared, like the eyes ward, and we still kept our course.

of the maniac, with no expression. They froze me with their Now the rock rose up before us, black, rugged, dismal. Its cold and icy stare. They had no meaning, for the soul had rough sides were worn by the action of the water, and in some gone. And this made it still more horrible than it could have places were covered with marine plants, and nameless ocean been in life ; for the appalling contortion of their faces, exvegetation. We passed onward, we clambered over a spar pressing fear, horror, despair, and whatever else the human which jutted from the cliff, and there lay the steamer.

soul may feel, contrasting with the cold and glassy eyes, made The Marmion—there she lay upright, with everything still their vacancy yet more fearful. He upon the table seemed more standing. She had gone right down, and had settled in such a fiendish than the others; for his long black hair was dishevelled, position amongst the rocks, that she stood upright here, jąst as and floated horribly down, and his beard and moustache, all tho ugh she lay at her wharf. We rushed eagerly along, loosened by the water, gave him the grimness of a demon. Oh, and lambered up her side. There was a low moan in the what woe and torture ! what unutterable agonies appeared in water, which sounded warningly in our ears, and told us of a the despairing glance of those faces-- faces twisted into spas

swiftly approaching danger. What was to be done must be modic contortions, while the souls that lighted them were | done spcen ily. We hurried forward, Parker rushed to the writhing and struggling for life.

cabin. I went forward to descend into the hold. I descended I heeded not the dangerous sea which, even when we touched the ladder. I walked into the engineer's room. All was empty the steamer, had slightly rolled. Down in these awful depths here-all was water. The waves of the ocean bad entered, and the swell would not be very strong, unless it should increase were sporting with the works of man. I looked down into the with tenfold fury above. But it had been increasing, though I hold. Suddenly I was startled by an appalling noise upon the had not noticed it, and the motion of the water began to be felt deck.

in these abysses. Suddenly the steamer was rocked and shaken The heavy footsteps of some one running, as though in mortal by the swell. fear, or most dreadful (haste, sounded in my ears.

At this the hideous forms were shaken, and fell. The heaps heart throbbed wildly; for it was a fearful thing to hear, far of people rolled asunder. That demon on the table seemed to down in the silent depths of the ocean.

make a spring directly towards me. I fled, shrieking-all were Pshaw! it's only Parker.

after me, I thought. I rushed out, with no purpose but to I hurriedly ascended the deck by the first outlet that appear-escape. I sought to throw off my weights, and rise. My ed. When I speak of hurry, I speak of the quickest move-weights could not be lorsened—I pulled at them with frantic ment possible, when cumbered with so much armor. But this exertions, but could not loosen them. The iron fastenings had movement of mine was quick ; I rushed on the deck.

grown stiff, One of them I wrested off in my convulsive It was Parker !

efforts, but the other still kept me down. The tube, also, was He stepped forward and clutched my arm; he pressed it with lying down still in my passage-way through the machine-rooms. a convulsive grasp, and pointed to the cabin. I attempted to I did not know this until I had exhausted my strength, and

almost my hope, in vain efforts to loosen the weight, and still He stamped his foot, and tried to hold me back. He pointed the horror of that scene in the cabin rested upon me. to the boat, and implored me with frantic gestures to go up. Where was Parker? The thought flashed across me. He

It is appalling to witness the horrorstrack soul trying to ex- was not here. He had returned. Two weights lay near, which press itself by signs. It is awful to see these signs when no seemed thrown off in terrible baste. Yes, Parker had gone. I face is plainly visible, and no voice is heard. I could not see looked up; there lay the schooner tossing and rolling among his face plainly ; but his eyes, through his heavy mask, glowed the waves. like coals of fire.

I went down into the machine-room, to go back, so as to clear “I will go !" I exclaimed. I sprang from him. He clasped my tube. I had gone through the passages carelessly, and it his hands together, but dared not follow.

had got entangled with something in my hurry to reach the Good heavens ! I thought, what fearful thing is here? What I deck. I went back in haste to extricate myself— I could stay

Then my

go there.

me ?

6.

a land

here no longer ; for if all the gold of Golconda had been in the animals, that, although low in the scale of wit, they soon begin vessel, I would not stay in company with the dreadful dead ! to recognise and show an affection for any person by whom

Back--fear lent wings to my feet. I hurried down the ladder they often have it indulged, and they find out with surprising into the machine-room once more, and retraced my steps accuracy what they must do to get more.

It is thus that horses through the passages below. I walked back to the place into are taught to go through many of the wonderful performances which I had first descended. It was dark ; a new feeling of exhibited at amphitheatres. The love of cattle for sweet fodder horror shot through me; I looked up. The aperture was is most amusing ; it is hardly possible to keep them out of a closed !

field in which some of the sweeter varieties of Indian corn or Heavens ! was it closed by mortal hand? Had Parker, in bis Chinese sugar grass is growing, should they have had one taste panic flight, blindly thrown down the hatch, wbich I now ie- of its quality, and the use of sweetened food is one of the means membered to have seen open when I descended ? or had some by which cattle are induced to eat to the limits of repletion, in fearful being from the cabin—that demon who sprung towards order to produce that maximum of fat desired by agricultural

societies. Of the delight taken by that eminent mammalI started back in terror.

man--for sugar, nothing need be said. But I could not wait here; I must go; I must escape from The practice of sweetening food is far more ancient than the this den of horrors. I ran up the ladder, and tried to raise the knowledge of actual sugar. It is almost certain that the Greeks door. It resisted my efforts ; I put my helmeted head against and Romans knew sugar only as honey ; and, as this had to be it, but to no purpose ; tbe stale of the ladder broke beneath employed for nearly all sweetening of their food, bee-keeping me, but the door was not raised ; my tube came down through was as great a business then as sugar-baking is now. it, an' kept partly open, for it was a strong tube, and kept

That accounts for the frequent citation by ancient writers of expanded by close-wound wire. I seized a bar of iron, and tried

names of places famous for the quantity and fineness of the to pry it up; I raised it slightly, but there was no way to get honey they produced, as Hybla, Hymettus, Canaan, it up further. I looked around, and found some blocks; with flowing with milk and honey." At a later date cane honey the bar I lifted the heavy door, little by little, placing a block became known to the Romans. in, to keep what I bad gained. But the work was slow and Dioscorides, a writer in the first century, mentions that a kind laborious, and I had worked a long time before I had lifted it of honey was found on canes that grew in India and Arabia four inches.

which was called sugar, and which, we are informed by Pliny, The sea rolled-more and more. The submerged vessel felt its

was only used in medicine, as we use manna, though without power, and rocked. Suddenly it heeled over, and lay upon its the laxative properties of manna. Sugar appears to have been side.

first introduced into Europe at the time of the Crusades, when I ran round to get or the deck above, to try and lift up the it was used as a rare kind of sweetmeat; the art of boiling down door. But when I came to the other outlet, I knew it was im- the juice of the sugar cane not having any commercial importpossible, for the tube would not permit me to go so far, and ance until the middle of the fifteenth century. But the genethen I would rather have died a thousand deaths than haveral domestic use of sugar dates only from the discovery of ventured again so near the cabin. I returned to the fallen America, and the subsequent establishment of plantations of hatch ; I sat down in despair and waited for death. I saw no sugar canes in the West Indies. hope for escape. This, then, was to be my end !

Sugar belongs to a class of substances closely akin to one But the steamer gave a sudden lurch, again acted upon by another, called in chemistry the glucic group. Glucic is only the power of the waves. Sae had been balanced upon a rock, a Greek way of saying sweet. The members of this family are in such a way that a slight action of the water was sufficient to made of carbon, with the addition of oxygen and hydrogen in tip her over.

the proportions to form water. Sugar is charcoal and water in She creaked, and groaned and labored, and then turned upon another shape, established by another way of blending the three her side.

eleñents. I rose, clung to the ladder ; I pressed the trapdoor open, The names of the principal members of the sweet group in while the steamer lay with her deck perpendicular to the the order of the quantity of water they may be supposed to ground. I sprang out and touched the bottom of the sea. It contain are, vegetable or woody fibre, gum tragacanth, starch, was in good time, for a moment after, the muss went over back gum arabic, cane sugar, fruit sugar, grape sugar, milk sugar, again.

and inosite, or the sugar of animal muscle. The kinds of sugar Then with a last effort, I twisted the iron fastening of the mentioned in the foregoing list will all ferment, and are called weight which kopt me down ; I jerked it. It was loosed, it fermentable or true sugars. broke, it fell. In a moment I began to ascend, and in a few There is a class of sugars also characterised by a very sweet minutes I was floating on the water--for the air which is taste wbich will not ferment, and which seem, moreover, to be pressed down for the diver's consumption constitutes a buoyant somewhat different in constitution. mass, which raises him up from the sea.

Manna sugar and liquorice sugar are the most familiar examThanks to Heaven! There was the strong boat, with my ples. It must also be borne in mind, when considering the bold, brave men ! They felt me rising ; they saw me, and cime properties of all these varieties, that though called by one and saved me.

generic name, and nearly related in constitution, they are in Parker had fiel from the horrid scene when I entered the each case perfectly distinct bodies, each with its own properties cabin, but remained in the boat to lend his aid. He never and its own way of composition. went down again, but became a sea captain. As for me, I still Though the sweetness of all substances forming the food of go down, but only to vessels whose crews have been saved. man and animals is caused by the presence of one of these su

It is needless to say that the Marmion was never again gars, yet we know of other sweet compounds, some of them visited.

sweeter than sugar, that are anything but eatable. Sugar of lead, for instance, very sweet, though nauseously metallic in

its taste; glycerine also is sweet, and so is chloroform ; while a SWEETS.

solution of chloride of silver in hyposulphite of soda is proba

bly the sweetest compound known ; its excessive swectness, THROUGHOUT the whole of the great class of animals headed by when a drop is placed on the tongue, being almost intolerable. man, from the elephant down to the shrewmouse, there is one Cane sugar, which is the sweetest of all true sugars, is consort of tooth-the sweet tooth-common to all. Even the tained in the juices of the sugar cane, in beet-root, in the sap of Cuary-bird understands sugar, while, as for the ants and the many kinds of palm and of the sugar maple ; in the stalks of flies, they will die for it and in it. Whether or not it be dis- Indian corn, the juice of gourds ; and from all these sources, it tingui hable by the taste, some kind of sugar is known to exist is got for man's use as an article of trade, being identically the

every kind of food taken by animals, beginning with same substance in each case.

's milk, which is always sweetened to the particular It is also contained in some stage of their growth in most wanto mort of suckling.

fruits, in the stalks of grasses, in the leaves of certain plants, So

ho enjoyment produced by this taste in many as the red cabbage ; in the roots of many others, as the carrot ;

in nea: the mc

ICEBERGS CROSSING THE PATH OF A NEW YORK STEAMER.

in the sap of trees, as birch, hazel ; and is, in fact, common in the plant world. The way of getting sugar from the above sources is in principle the same in all cases, and is so well known that we need not repeat it here.

Cane sugar is nearly pure in the finer varieties of lump sugar, which, like snow, owes its dazzling whiteness to the innumerable refractions and reflections of the light fallen upon it. Its sweetening power is very great, a property in part due to its great solubility in water, which will take up three times its own weight when cold, and almost any quantity when boiling. When a strong solution of sugar is allowed to congeal slowly, it forms the large crystals known as sugar-candy, wbich, of course, differs from ordinary sugar in nothing but form.

When heated to a temperature of three hundred and twenty degrees sugar melts, and, on cooling, solidifies to the glassy transparent substance known as barley-sugar. This clouds by keeping, because the sugar has been slowly assuming the crystalline form, a change that is the cause of that delicious crust which some of us recollect as encasing acid-drops or other transparent sweetmeats after a long storage in the schoolroom desk. When a boiling saturated solution of sugar is poured on a cool plate, or in a mould, it solidifies on cooling to an opaque, concrete mass.

These two forms of cane sugar are the foundation of all the arts of sweetmeat manufacture. When sugar is carefully heated to a temperature of about four hundred and fifteen degrees, it loses water, and is changed into an intensely dark brown fusible matter called caramel, but more commonly known as burnt sugar.

This substance is very soluble in water, and is used extensively to color wines and sauces, producing all tints, from a light amber to an almost black, and haviwg the advantage, when properly prepared, of being free from taste and smell. A solution of sugar will dissolve a large quantity of lime, and such a mixture, when containing but a small amount of lime, or even alkali, will act upon-a purer sugar does not copper vessels.

The commonest forms of fruit sugar are honey and treacle. In the former it is associated with grape sugar, and in the latter with cane sugar.

It is called fruit sugar from being the cause of the sweetness of most of the fruits of temperate climates, those of tropical climates being said to owe their sweetness generally to cane sugar.

By some very recent experiments in France, it has been shown that the sweet principle, as it first appears in the fruit, is cane sugar, which is changed wholly or partially into fruit sugar by the process of ripening. Fruit sugar cannot be made to crystallise, and is, therefore, hardly to be met with in a solid form. When a solution of our household sugar is boiled for some time, it is partly converted into fruit sugar, which has the property of preventing the crystallization of a large quantity of the unchanged cane sugar. This accounts for the formation of molasses, there being formed during the long evaporation of the cane juice much fruit sugar, which subsequently drains away. Under the heat of the refining process, we, for a like reason, get treacle as a thick uncrystallizable syrup, carrying, of course, macb cane sugar with it in solution.

The chan se from cane into fruit sugar takes place more quickly when there is malic, tartaric, or almost any vegetable acid present; thus, in making fruit preserves, the acid of the fruit, by boiling with the sugar, soon changes the whole of it into fruit sugar, so that on subsequent cooling there is no crystallization as there would be if this change did not occur. Where preserves, jellies, honey, &c., are kept for some time, they are apt to undergo the disagreeable change commonly known as candying. This is caused by the gradual conversion of the fruit sugar into grape sugar, the warty crystalline lumps of which, diffused through the mass, give rise to the peculiar change in taste and appearance. The change may generally be observed to have taken place on the surface of jams when the part below is quite unaffected. The crust of sugar that surrounds most dried fruits also comes by reason of the prope::ty fruit sugar has of passing, under certain circumstances, ato grape sugar. Grape sugar (so called because it is got from dried

"s), though it is not used to nearly the same extent an two, is perhaps the most interesting, as it is the o!