Page:The American Boy's Handy Book edition 1.djvu/68

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Home-Made Fishing Tackle.
43
Inhabitants of the Water.

How natural it is to speak of a love for the sea, or an intimate acquaintance and knowledge of the ocean, when, in reality, it is only the top or surface of the water that is meant, while the hidden mysteries that underlie the billows, the sea-world proper—its scenery, inhabitants, and history—are but

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Fig. 47.

partially known, except to our most learned naturalists. The occasional glimpses we have of queer and odd specimens kidnapped from this unknown realm make it natural for us to feel a curiosity to know and a desire to see the life and forms that are concealed beneath the waves.

What boy can sit all day in a boat, or upon the green shady bank of an inland stream, watching the floating cork of his fish line without experiencing a longing for some new patent transparent diving bell, in which, comfortably ensconced at the bottom of the water, he might see all that goes on in that unfamiliar country.

In the next chapter I propose to show how this natural curiosity or desire for knowledge may be gratified, not exactly by placing you at the bottom of the water, but by transporting a portion of this curious world, with its liquid atmosphere and living inhabitants into your own house, where you may inspect and study it at your leisure.

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