LITMIR.BIZ

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I had felt as if skimming over the earth without touching it.

      Looking upwards, I was struck with the curious appearance of the outside world seen from the depths of the water. The sky and some elevated objects on land, such as trees and mountain tops, were seen framed in a large circular opening, sharply defined and surrounded by a thin ring of prismatic colours. Objects near the horizon appeared high up, but dwarfed and flattened laterally; and the sun itself, when not right overhead, was of an oval shape, the long diameter being horizontal. The remainder of the space visible was occupied by a vivid reflection of the bottom of the sea, the corals, sponges and sea-weed being reproduced with great distinctness. The deeper the water the smaller the circumference of the circular space through which sky and external objects were seen.

      The water being perfectly clear, I could see to a considerable distance, and all objects floating in the water were distinctly seen and of their natural shape.

      I was struck by the exquisite whiteness of the skin both of my own body and that of my companion, owing to the blue tinge in the water.

      On this first occasion I could not remain long below the surface, owing to the painful sensation ​caused in my eyes by the contact with the sea-water. This smarting sensation was speedily removed by an eye-wash my Instructor gave me, and gradually diminished as I grew used to the immersion; so that after a week's practice I no longer felt any inconvenience from it, and could remain as long under water as I chose without the slightest discomfort in the eyes.

      Until I got thoroughly habituated to the new element, I used to pass most of my time in the grotto of my Instructor prosecuting the studies necessary in order to make me fit for mingling with the community among whom I was to pass my time and whose manners and customs I was to adopt.

      My progress towards this end gave great satisfaction to my Instructor, who assured me that others had much greater difficulty in becoming accustomed to this new life than I had displayed. This I could very well understand, for I know many persons at home to whom immersion, even for a short time, is attended by very disagreeable effects.

      I asked my teacher if it was not the case that some could never become used to the aquatic habits of his countrymen: to which he replied:—

      "It is certainly the case that a good many of those who are thrown upon these islands can never adapt their habits to ours, in fact are unable to exist with any degree of comfort in the water. These are, therefore, constrained to remain on the land, and there are many houses and residences on shore where these unfortunate people dwell. The discomforts of a land residence are, however, so great that most of them pine away and die, and of those who are able to stand out against the deleterious influences of the ​climate, most are employed in some of the manufactures, which must always be conducted on the land. They have adopted sundry contrivances for warding off the extreme heat and the attacks of the insects, and so manage to live in tolerable comfort. But they are looked down upon by us, and cannot help feeling themselves to be an inferior kind of beings to us who are endowed by nature with the necessary faculties for a subaqueous life. It is possible that in earlier times, when the land was actually inhabited and that pretty thickly by the race who have left monuments of their art and industry on the land, the climate of this region was very different from what it is now. When the climate gradually changed and aquatic habits became indispensable there can be no doubt that natural selection caused the gradual extinction of those who were unfit for subaqueous life."

      "I see," I rejoined, "this is only another instance to be added to the many known examples of the 'survival of the fittest.'"

      "Exactly so," he replied, "but as the choice lay between living in water or dying on land, the love of life acted as a very powerful stimulus for promoting the acquirement of aquatic habits.

      "Possibly," he continued, "many might become seasoned or acclimatized to the dreadful heat and even to the noxious insects; but there is another plague these islands are subject to which none can resist, and that is the terrible volcanic eruptions to which they are exposed. You noticed that one of the hills on this the largest island is an active crater, at present only emitting a thin stream of vapour. But at uncertain times the most frightful eruptions take place sometimes in this, sometimes in one or several ​of the other islands, when streams of molten lava and showers of ashes and scoriæ are ejected from chasms that open up in uncertain places. These eruptions drive all into the sea, or cause them to take shelter in the numerous caverns with which the islands abound. The red-hot lava and ashes cause terrible conflagrations in our forests, and many of those who are physically incapacitated from living in the water have been smoked or roasted to death in their subterranean retreats. In short, life on land is attended by so many discomforts and dangers that the country would long ago have been depopulated, were it not for the safe asylum afforded by our sub-aqueous abode."

      I was much struck by the perfect stillness of the air, which seldom stirred the surface of the water sufficiently to cause the slightest ripple. It was owing to this glass-like smoothness of the surface that external objects were so distinctly observed through the circular opening I before described, and that such a perfect reflection of the bottom of the sea was seen from below.

      I had read that even in tropical regions certain winds, which we call trade-winds, prevailed and a steady breeze blew almost constantly in one direction or another. To my inquiry whether this portion of the globe was not subject to these winds, the Instructor replied:—

      "This region is situated precisely in the angle between the north-east and south-east trade-winds, and is quite exempt from their influence. We are occasionally visited by terrific cyclones or circular hurricanes, and then the surface of our inland sea is agitated to a considerable degree; but the agitation ​does not extend to any great depth, so that when we are four or five fathoms below the surface we are not aware of the slightest movement of the water, and would only know that a hurricane is raging above by the circumstance that then the mirror above us is broken into fragments, and where the sky is seen when it is calm through the circular opening, nothing but a patch of broken light is visible. But these hurricanes are of short duration, and occur at rare intervals, so that they do not interfere in the slightest degree with the avocations nor even with the amusements of the inhabitants of the watery depths.

      It was some weeks before I could trust myself to stay altogether beneath the water, and to sleep there; but at last I accomplished even this most difficult feat. To do this at first, I had to lie down on my back, in a sort of niche among the corals lined with soft sponges, with an air-tube between my lips and a spring-compressor on my nose to prevent me drawing the water in by my nostrils. I practised regular breathing, which gradually seemed to come quite naturally and to be performed without conscious effort, nor was it interrupted when unconsciousness overtook me and I slept soundly. I was soon able to dispense with the nose-clip, the muscles of the nostrils acting automatically and closing the nasal orifices completely.

      When I had thoroughly mastered this difficulty, my Instructor pronounced me qualified by aquatic accomplishments for admission as a citizen of this remarkable community.

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