[274] Instances of the dexterity of the savages in diving and swimming
may be seen in J. Kraft, Sitten der Wilden, Kopenhagen, 1766, 8vo,
p. 39. To which may be added the account given by Maffæus of the
Brasilians: “They are,” says he, “wonderfully skilled in the art of
diving, and can remain sometimes for hours under water, with their eyes
open, in order to search for any thing at the bottom.”--Hist. Indic.
lib. ii.
[275] Lucanus, iii. 697.
[276] Livius, xliv. c. 10. Manilii Astronom. v. 449.
[277] A Latin translation of these laws may be found in Marquard de
Jure Mercatorum, p. 338. “If gold or silver, or any other article be
brought up from the depth of eight cubits, the person who saves it
shall receive one-third. If from fifteen cubits, the person who saves
it shall, on account of the danger of the depth, receive one-half. If
goods are cast up by the waves towards the shore, and found sunk at the
depth of one cubit, the person who carries them out safe shall receive
a tenth part.” See also Scheffer De Militia Navali, Upsaliæ, 1654, 4to,
p. 110.
[278] Q. Curtius, iv. c. 3. The same account is given by Arrian, De
Expedit. Alexandri, lib. ii. p. 138. We are told by Thucydides, in his
seventh book, that the Syracusans did the same thing.
[279] Boerhaave, Prælectiones Academicæ, edit. Halleri, Göttingæ, 1774.
8vo, v. ii. p. 472-474. Halleri Elementa Physiologiæ, iii. p. 252, and
viii. 2, p. 14.
[280] “The divers of Astracan stepped from the warm bath into the
water, in which they could not continue above seven minutes, and were
brought back from the water, cold and benumbed, to the warm bath, from
which they were obliged to return to the water again. This change
from heat to cold they repeat five times a day, until at length the
blood flows from their nose and ears, and they are carried back quite
senseless.”--Gmelin’s Reise durch Russland, ii. p. 199.
[281] Acta Philosophica Societatis in Anglia, auctore Oldenburgio.
Lipsiæ, 1675, 4to, p. 724.
[282] Scheeps-bouw beschreven door Nic. Witsen. Amsterdam, 1671, fol.
p. 288.
[283] [See the account of the Ceylon pearl fishery in Percival’s
Ceylon.]
[284] “Were the ignorant vulgar told that one could descend to the
bottom of the Rhine, in the midst of the water, without wetting one’s
clothes, or any part of one’s body, and even carry a lighted candle
to the bottom of the water, they would consider it as altogether
ridiculous and impossible. This, however, I saw done at Toledo, in
Spain, in the year 1538, before the emperor Charles V. and almost ten
thousand spectators. The experiment was made by two Greeks, who taking
a very large kettle, suspended from ropes with the mouth downwards,
fixed beams and planks in the middle of its concavity, upon which they
placed themselves, together with a candle. The kettle was equipoised by
means of lead fixed round its mouth, so that when let down towards the
water no part of its circumference should touch the water sooner than
another, else the water might easily have overcome the air included in
it, and have converted it into moist vapour. If a vessel thus prepared
be let down gently, and with due care, to the water, the included air
with great force makes way for itself through the resisting fluid. Thus
the men enclosed in it remain dry, in the midst of the water, for a
little while, until, in the course of time, the included air becomes
weakened by repeated aspiration, and is at length resolved into gross
vapours, being consumed by the greater moisture of the water: but if
the vessel be gently drawn up, the men continue dry, and the candle is
found burning.”--Taisneri Opuscula de celerrimo motu, quoted by Schott
in his Technica Curiosa, lib. vi. c. 9, p. 393.
[285] “Excellent use may be made of this vessel, which is employed
sometimes in labouring under water on sunk ships, to enable the divers
to continue longer under water, and to breathe, in turns, for a little
while. It was constructed in this manner. A hollow vessel was made of
metal, which was let down equally to the surface of the water, and thus
carried with it to the bottom of the sea the whole air it contained.
It stood upon three feet, like a tripod, which were in length somewhat
less than the height of a man; so that the diver, when he was no longer
able to contain his breath, could put his head into the vessel, and,
having breathed, return again to his work.”--Novum Organum, lib. ii. §
50. Bacon relates the same thing in his Phænomena Universi.
[286] G. Sinclari Ars nova et magna gravitatis et levitatis. Rot. 1669,
4to, p. 220.
[287] Paschii Inventa nov-antiqua. Lipsiæ, 1700, 4to, p. 650.
[288] Theatri Statici universalis pars tertia. Lipsiæ, 1726, fol. p.
242.
[289] This account is taken from the History of the British Empire in
America, by J. Wynne. London, 1770, 2 vols. 8vo, i. p. 131, and from
Campbell’s Lives of the Admirals.
[290] Martin’s Description of the Western Islands. The second edition.
London, 1716, 8vo, p. 253.--Campbell’s Political Survey of Britain.
London, 1774, 2 vols. 4to, p. 604.
[291] These figures are to be found in the following editions of
Vegetius:--Lutetiæ apud C. Wechelum, 1532, fol. p. 180. Fegetius, vier
Bücher von der Rytterschafft. Erfurt, Hans. Knappen, 1511, fol. These
figures are inserted also in Leupold’s Theatrum Pontificale, p. 11,
tab. ii. fig. 6.
[292] Le Fortificationi di Bounaiuto Lorini. Venet. 1609, fol. p. 232.
[293] Fran. Kessleri Secreta. Oppenheim, 1617, 8vo.
[294] Bartholini Acta Hafn. 1676, p. i. obs. 17.
[295] Scheeps-bouw, ut supra.
[296] See vol. i. p. 222, edit. Hag. Com. 1743.
[297] Acta Eruditorum, 1683, Decemb. p. 553. Jac. Bernoulli Opera.
[298] Phil. Trans. 1736.--Martin Triewald’s Konst at lefwa under
watnet. Stockholm, 1741, 4to.
[299] Brewster’s Edinburgh Encyclopædia, Art. Diving-bell.
[300] Reports of the late John Smeaton, F.R.S., vol. iii. p. 279.
[301] Phil. Trans. 1717 and 1721. The art of living under water, by
Halley.
[302] Martin’s Philosophia Britannica, vol. iii. p. 180.
[303] For further information on this important subject the reader is
referred to the article Diving-bell in the Encyclopædia Britannica
and its Supplement, also the Encyclopædia Metropolitana, Brewster’s
Edinburgh and the Penny Cyclopædia, Halley’s papers in the Phil. Trans.
for 1716 and 1721, Triewald’s in the same for 1736, Healy in the
Philosophical Magazine, vol. xv., and Leopold’s Theatrum Machinarum
Hydraulicarum.