And suddenly I had determined to see just what that amazing creature could be.  If it caught and swallowed me alive, it might, but—­it would take a pretty big swallow to make away with Lord Dolphin.  I confess to going to work very much like a sneak.  But it was quite easy, seeing all the other fishes had made off and left me a clear field, to hide midst a bed of tall sea-bushes.

So, very gently back I paddled, with motion slow and noiseless, to the region where the monster had come down.

How shall I describe it?  In the first place, I had never seen such a shape before.  The time when I was borne aloft on high waves, and looked into a ship’s cabin, I saw forms something like unto this one in some respects, but, dear sakes, not with such hideous parts!  But now, to name at once and describe afterwards,—­

It was a diver!

The diver belongs to the Folks family, but, bless us, his rig!  Imagine, if you can, a black object, with a great bunchy machine of a head, and for the rest, a mass of fixtures, such as would puzzle a far more stupid creature than a Dolphin to make out.

I have seen a diver many times since then, and am now able to tell a little about the fantastic-looking being.  Of course, there is very much more to be known, but if you remember what I say, it will give you some idea of a diver’s outfit that may linger in your mind, to be added to as you grow older.

First, then, close to his skin are warm woollen garments, sometimes two or even three sets of them.  If the weather is cold, he may have on two or three pairs of warm stockings.  How would you like being bundled up in that way?  Yet that is only the beginning.

Close to his head is a woollen cap coming down over his ears.  Thick shoulder-pads keep his outside suit from grazing or hurting, and it may be that other pads are about his body.  He next goes into an outside suit of India rubber, covered both inside and outside with a tanned twill which is water-proof, and the rubber itself has been treated in a way to make it very hard and lasting.  There is a double collar about the neck, of tough, sheet rubber, and one is to draw well up about the neck.

He must have assistance in getting into these rigid clothes, for it is hard working the arms into the stiff sleeves, and forcing the hands through cuffs which are made to expand or let out as they are drawn on, then close tight in some odd way with rubber rings and joints at the wrist, making the sleeves perfectly air tight.

Great care is taken in dressing the diver.  Everything must fit perfectly, every screw must be properly wound in, every strap and buckle made fast, or the poor diver may be in great danger.  His breastplate of copper is fastened on with metal clasps or bolts.  A fixture at his back steadies the weights both back and front, weighing forty pounds each.  These weights, it must be, are in some way supported by the ropes with which they let him down.