that my eye was most intensely fixed; it grew brighter as
the inside of the bell grew darker, till in a moment it appeared like a
bright line of gold-coloured light.

"There," said Jenkins to me, in a loud tone. "That is the last glimpse.
This is the most trying moment for inexperienced divers, when the last
beam of day is extinguished."

I could not reply to him. The circle had disappeared; the water was
below our feet; we were partially submerged. I looked up to the yolks of
glass, but the light that struggled through them was so pale and sickly
that I turned my eyes to the sea below me as a relief to my confined
vision. We were now fast descending--one by one the gas lights were
changed from their dim paleness to a green hue, the same as that of the
sea below us, and, in an instant after, I heard a loud whizzing, which
was produced by the displaced body of waters rushing impetuously into
the void made by the descending bell. The sound made me instinctively
turn my head upwards, as if I had been in the attitude of addressing the
King of the heavens, whom I had left in the regions of upper air. I grew
dizzy, and thought I would have fallen from the bench, down into the
bottom of the sea. My nervousness made me grasp firmly the plank, as my
only means of safety from what I conceived to be impending destruction.
Whether that sound then ceased, or my hearing became more obtuse, I know
not; but the first thing, after a few minutes, that I was conscious of
was the grasp of the hand of Jenkins, who held me firm by the arm, and
the guttural sounds of the German, as he still carelessly sung detached
lines of his ballad. On looking up, the green lights swam in my eyes;
but the whizzing sound had greatly ceased; and I directed again my gaze
to the apparently bottomless element below, which was as calm as glass,
and through which I saw, flying past the mouth of the bell, innumerable
fishes, reflecting, as they darted off, a thousand varied hues, in the
midst of the green medium through which they hurried.

The continued descent was made apparent to the eye by the progress of
the rim of the bell through the water, and indicated, in another form,
by the creaking sound of the crane on the lighter, which, rendered
indistinct by the medium of the water, seemed to come from miles
distant. Though partially recovered from the first effects of the
submersion, I had no proper idea of time, and there was no mode of
measuring the depth. I