the Duke of Albemarle, the son of Monk
who had drawn prizes from vexed waters
before him. Nay, whether our hero's family-
tree had been bearing this submarine fruit so
very long or not, it is certain his father
followed the trade before him; and off the Irish
coast, near Cork, his brother is or was a most
distinguished diver. "Whenever there was an
adventure to be described a leetle too strong
for even my infant faith, the narration was
made oblique, and became a family incident
instead of a personal reminiscence, as:

"It was in the year fourteen, or, it may be,
fifteen, when the Diomede went down, off
Deal, and the guv'nor and a chum of his,
named Bluffy, was appointed to be under the
sea; for we be captains, like, and masters
and all, when a ship once goes to the bottom,
and wears, by consequence, a very singular
uniform. Now, there was no better water-
workmen in the Channel than them two;
and they would have been employed still
more constantly, and been yet better to do in
the world, but for being so precious fond of
their game of cribbage. All day long, in
some little parlour like this present, they'd
be knobbing, and heeling, and going, so that
they was seldom ready when they was wanted,
and went by the name of the Fifteen Two.
However, the Diomede had bars of gold in
her, and it was of the utmost consequence to
work at her as hard and fast as might be.
So Bluffy and the guv'nor was hauled out of
their snug parlour to the minute, never mind
where the game was, and out they was rowed
to the lugger moored above the wreck, and
down they was lowered in the bell. On one
of those mornings, especially, they had a great
mind to throw up their commissions, and go
on pegging away all their lifetimes; but they
thought better of it, and went aboard. Now,
they was accustomed to be below a good long
time, only this day they stayed a precious
deal longer, and the crew above began to be
alarmed, and to think there was something
wrong with the air-tube. Howsomever, as
no signal had been given to draw up, they
sent down a third man in a helmet, to see
what had become of 'em, and a precious sight
he sees: Bluffy and the guv'nor in their
diving-dresses, sitting in the bell like a couple
of magnified tadpoles, and cutting, and
showing, and cribbing, with the cards and
the board between them, just as though they
were in the inn parlour, except that now and
then they was nearly being suffocated, having
forgotten to turn the air-cock. So the end of
it was, Fifteen Two was never allowed to go
down in the bell together no more."

"Dear me! " said I, "Mr. Headfurst, that
seems a very extraordinary story."

"Xtrorniry, I believe you," said he, "but
nothing like a fight I had once with a 'lectrical
eel, in fifty fathom of water, west-by-south of
St. Michael's Mount, in Cornwall. It was
one of my earliest jobs, and I wasn't thoroughly
used to the work at that time; and I hadn't
a mate, either, to go down with me. It's a
fright'ning thing that sinking sinking out of
sight of everything, a'most, without knowing
where you're going to, nor what you may
find when you get there. This time the
bell missed the wreck I was arter, entirely
(which, as it happen'd, however, was a very
fortunate circumstance), and I was lowered
down to the very bottom. Half way down,
Master James, what should come into the
machine but an enormous 'lectrical eel. He
came in, young master, and he stopped in;
and the higher the water rose in the bell, the
nigher I got to the 'lectrical eel. I pulled my
precious legs up on the seat, I promise you,
and sat tailor fashion all the rest of the way;
but when we touched ground at last, I
wasn't above an inch or two off the beast,—
boxed up under the ocean, within a couple of
inches of being shocked to death. Well, as I
said, I was new to the work, and having
banged at him with a pickaxe till I was tired,
and he slipped away from me just like oil, I
thought it would be an easier thing to
suffocate him than me; so I didn't turn no air on
for ever so long, and found myself getting
black in the face, while the animal was
swimming and gliding like a gentleman in easy
circumstances enjoying the spectacle, and
every now and then a-splashing with his tail
for moderate applause. So I gave up that
dodge just in time, and resumed my pick.
The more I picked, however, the less he
chose, which was an unappreciated joke I
made to myself during those trying events
themselves, and I was obliged to try summut
else. I laid bare the floor of the bell (which
we can do within an inch or so), got him
into shallow water, and very soon finished
him off. The skin is in the big chest, in
my bed-room, and measures a hundred and
twenty feet from tip to tip. I regret to say
that the key is lost, or I should have great
pleasure in showing it to you."

Once upon a time I persuaded Mr. Headfurst
to let me accompany him on one of his
submarine visits to the great three-decker
which I first spoke of as sunken opposite. I
was in a flutter of fright and joy such as
youths who have only been clown in the bell
at the Polytechnic can form no idea of. I
had the perfectest confidence in the machine,
and, above all, in my friend Thomas, but
still I was in a greater state of "blue funk"
than most boys of fifteen have ever any
reason to be. The bell could hold but two,
so I took the place of the other diver—though,
of course, without a helmet—opposite Thomas.
I had become quite accustomed by this time
to his hideous apparel above-board and on
land, but as we sank lower and lower, and the
light grew dimmer and dimmer, that terrible
shako of his, and his pipes, and his paraphernalia
grew frightfully unnatural to my perturbed
vision, and I thought whether he
might not be Davy Jones himself, and the
bell his "locker." Now and then some