BOYS' OWN COLUMN

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 17, 20 January 1934, Page 2 (Supplement)

BOYS' OWN COLUMN

A GARDEN UNDER THE SEA

EXPLORERS OF OCEAN LIFE. Dear Boys,— No one could have more exciting- adventures in a bathing suit than the American scientists who are exploring the sea bed off the coast of the Bahama Group of Islands, which are south and east of Florida. The object of the expedition is to collect photographs and other scientific data to be used in the building of the Hall of Ocean Life in the American Museum of Natural History. In a curtained-off enclosure several tons of real coral rock have been set up by hidden cement, and thousands of the smaller coral forms stand upon the floor. These have been coloured to show their original tints. There are fish of plaster, moulded in casts made from actual bodies. These, too, are painted in actual colours. There are gorgonians, sting rays, and sea urchins with glass spines, all exact reproductions of their originals. The clever use of plate glass will give an under-water effect in order that visitors may easily imagine themselves to be looking at an actual piece of the sea bed. Such a wealth of colour is to be found on the ocean bed off Rose Island—:itself one of the many coral reefs that stick up above the sea in the Bahama Group—that a writer in an overseas magazine likens it to a garden under the sea. Already the museum workers have made five trips to this spot in search of material and data from which to build up accurately the Hall of Ocean Life. The final expedition is now being undertaken in order to check the work already executed and make error impossible. Regulation diving equipment is not used by this expedition. Instead, those who make the descents are clad in ordinary bathing costume, whilst a loose-fitting metal helmet with a glass front fits lightly over the shoulders. Heavy weights hold the helmet in position. r> T'.ose fit not being necessary because the pressure of air keeps ou: C'ia water. A stout hose supplies air from above, the pump and equipment being housed on the deck of a 48ft launch. An artist attached to the expedition paints pictures under water. Naturally special equipment is required. Palette and easel are ilOide of non-rusting metal, whilst the canvas upon which he paints is a piece of oiled cloth stretched over glass. Ordinary oil paints are used, but are applied, not with a brush, but with a narrow knife. Motion pictures of the scene are being taken, special cameras being used for the purpose. These are enclosed in a waterproof case and have mechanism attached by which the film is exposed by the simple pressure of a lever. These cameras have an under-water range of only ten feet and are by no means easy to handle. They are set up on metal tripods and the operator takes up his position in Order to set the machine in motion when interesting fish come within the range of the lens. No doubt the work is interesting in the extreme, but it is not altogether without danger. Sharks may be present at any time in tropical seas, and there are several other finny denizens of the deep that spell danger to the man who descends to the ocean bed without ~ the protection of regulation diving equipment. All honour, then, to these f [y j workers who are investigating the mysteries of ocean life for the benefit of all.