Lord Dolphin Part 5

Now don't be alarmed. I won't let you be swept from my back. I am only going to wash my head. See me swim directly under this ma.s.s of sponge, swaying out from a rock. There will be no bits of sand clinging to me after I have been sponged a few moments.

Here is a sponge that looks as if almost as large as your sun when it rises out of the water, but if you squeeze that fellow dry--the sponge, not the sun--it will not begin to be the size it is now. You could press it into a bowl of moderate size when dry, but then take it to the pump or the faucet, fill it with water, and my, what a balloon!

Sponges were once called "worm-nests," and were thought to be a mere kind of seaweed. But looked at under the sea, it would be known at once that they are neither nest nor weed.

Once in awhile sponges seem to spring directly up from the mud without anything to cling to, but generally they are fastened to rocks or large stones, and spread out and out from them. Here they look so much like a kind of herb, that Folks who make a study of things in nature, and are called naturalists, for a long time took them to be a kind of sea-plant, and for years it was a puzzle as to just what they were.

All are full of pores or layers of small cells, and some are quite pretty from having a fringe about the cells like eyelashes. There are others curiously shaped, looking like coral sprays, and here and there they look like helmets; then there is another form that seems to have long fingers running out, and is called "mermaid's gloves."

The form called "Venus flower-basket," large and basket-shaped, might answer for a mermaid's work-basket, and hold her thimble, scissors, and thread. You had better take care! A mermaid may be near this very moment, and hear you laughing. And remember, she could spin you round from one end of the sea to another, then leave you high and dry on a big rock in the middle of the ocean.

Now, on what do sponges feed? Dear sakes, as if they fed on anything!

Yet they do. Although they branch and bunch out in the forms described, yet they do not roam about, but only float or swim out as far as they can stretch themselves while firmly fastened to a rock. Here they take in specks or particles that float through the water; they pa.s.s through the open pores of the body, and answer for food. The water constantly pa.s.sing through them serves to refresh and keep them round and healthy.

Here we come to a perfect thicket of sponges, and see the fishes playing "tag" all around and about them. There! that sly little fish, like a salt water pickerel, nipped the tail of that great clumsy porpoise--porpus--so hard, I heard the big fish grunt. The teeth of a pickerel are fearfully long and sharp.

Oh! Oh! What is that most beautiful thing we see s.h.i.+ning with a faint, sweet glow, down at the bottom of the sea? It is in plain sight, nestled in the heart of a conch-sh.e.l.l. It is round, has a milk-like murkiness, yet pinky, changing lights like tiny stars, that glint and gleam as you look upon it.

Now believe me! Of all the treasures of the sea I have told you of or shown you, this is far and away the most precious.

It is a pearl. Only once in a great while will so perfect and so valuable a gem be found near my deep water home. And although we are not so very far east, yet it would be called an "Orient," or an "Eastern pearl."

Perhaps it has floated in its polished pink bed from a far eastern sea.

I told you a little while ago that I must explain what an oyster had to do with Folks that sported too many jewels, and why it might be amused at the sight.

Did you know that inside of an oyster-sh.e.l.l grew the lovely, costly pearls that Folks will give a great deal of money for? Why, Queen Victoria of England had a Scotch pearl that cost two hundred dollars.

Queens and princes, rich Folks, jewellers, and dealers in precious stones, will give great sums of money for necklaces, brooches, or rings that have in them the precious Oriental pearls.

I had to listen very hard to find out what I did about pearls. But I found that they have been known, talked of, and written about, almost ever since the beginning of the world.

Oyster-beds are generally much nearer the sh.o.r.e than most kinds of sh.e.l.ls. It is said to be when an oyster gets restless or uneasy that a strange substance enters the edge of the sh.e.l.l, and after a time a pearl is formed. And while many pearls are found in oyster-sh.e.l.ls, they also are often found fastened to the pink bosom of a conch-sh.e.l.l.

There are black pearls of much value, but though rare, they are never half as beautiful as a white or pink one. Some pink pearls are very lovely, and when large-sized, are also very expensive.

The pearl we see lying here is a splendid white one, and my! the money it would bring! Pick up that sh.e.l.l, carry it with you to a jeweller, and see the dollars the fair round gem will bring to your purse. You could buy yourself beautiful clothes, or a pony, or could have with it a fine party, flowers, favors, treat and all.

What? Don't dare to? Oh, me, me, what a little coward! I can't pick it up very well. If I took it in my mouth, down my throat it would go. If I tried to catch it up with a fin, over into the water it would bounce.

Never mind. Look at the sweetly beautiful conch-sh.e.l.l, with the splendid gem resting so softly on its pink, polished side. And let me tell you what I think.

The opinion of a fish, even a great lordly one, may not be worth much, but to me that exquisitely lovely stone, reposing on that exquisitely lovely sh.e.l.l, is a far more beautiful thing to look upon than the jewel ever could be when fitted into the costliest setting of gold.

Now it is just as it was made, and I think that Whoever formed and set that pearl knew more about real beauty and fitness, and what is simple, natural, and very beautiful, than all the Folks and jewellers in the world.

Look at that white splendor. Don't you agree with me?

CHAPTER VII.

WHAT I SAW ONE DAY

Now I do not know how brave an English lord may be or how much it may take to scare him, but I, Lord Dolphin, inhabitant of the great Mediterranean Sea, was scared nearly out of my wits and skin by the sight I saw one day.

But there is this to comfort me: if I was a coward at the sight, there were plenty of other creatures in the sea to keep me company. Mercy on us! Such a scuttling and rus.h.i.+ng, such a whisking and a whacking, flying and plunging, I for one never saw before. There was actually a chorus of flapping fins and thumping tails as we raced for our lives.

Was it a steam-engine or a monster boiler that was coming right down from upper regions into our midst? Or, had some new sea-monster fallen from the skies to drive us from our hunting and fis.h.i.+ng grounds?

We knew something about sea-lions, the huge creature that you may have seen at the Zoo, or in a tank at the park, lifting itself like an enormous sea-horse, and roaring like the animal whose name it bears. But a sea-lion would not have cut through the water from way above. It would have come steering along like a great black vessel, puffing and blowing, while all the time it would have been a creature of the sea, and we should have known it, and not have been so terrified.

Or, had a whale come bearing down from upper waters, as they sometimes do, there would have been a disturbance first, made by the spouting and slas.h.i.+ng that our instinct at once would have told us came from some monster of the deep.

Or, again, had it been the hulk of a vessel that could not stand some violent storm, oh, yes, we should have known what that was, too. But now, off tore the fishes, mad with terror, big fishes, little fishes, fat fellows, lean fellows, pleasant ones, and grumblers.

I laughed, yes, with all my fright I had to laugh at such a funny sight.

I was behind what Folks call "whole schools of fishes," only they speak of "a school of fish," meaning many of one kind, but the madcap crowd I looked upon was made up of almost every size and sort.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "OFF TORE THE FISHES, MAD WITH TERROR"]

I saw a porpoise--porpus--my enormous cousin, all of fifteen feet long, crowd in midst a mult.i.tude of swift little swimmers, as if he meant to make them help in spinning him through the water faster than he could go by himself. Then on the back of another Dolphin, I saw a crowd of little fishes that seemed so stiff with fear, they had been knowing enough to cling to the back of the great fish, making a boat of him to bear them to a place of safety.

Paddling sideways, I caught a glimpse of the flying-fish that had been my tormentor. All at once I stopped short.

Now they say that some Folks are very curious. I do not mean that they are odd or amusing to look at. But they have curiosity, and want to peer and pry into things. It is not at all nice to want to find out all about other Folks' affairs. It belongs to a poor, mean nature to want to do that. But to want to inquire into matters for the sake of getting true knowledge is right and worthy even for a fish.

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 s.h.i.+p'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 ma.s.s 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 a.s.sistance 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.