At the back of an old farm-house, in a shady little grove, through which rippled a shallow stream, which stopped on its way in the grove to make a deep pool, we had some royal fun one Fourth of July in submarine blasting. Our methods and materials were simple, but the result very gratifying to us. In the first place, we made a rude cup of clay, to the bottom of which we attached a string; then we stuck a fire-cracker to the soft clay inside; and when all was ready, lighted the cracker, and quickly but carefully lowered the cup, bottom up, into the water. Presently we saw a puff of smoke away at the bottom of the pool; the diving-bell was overthrown, and then hidden from view by the small cloud of smoke as it came curling up and burst upon the surface. One side of our diving-bell was blown out, but not sufficiently shattered to satisfy us; so we set to work to construct one on a more extensive scale. We procured half of a small water-melon, and scooping out the inside, passed a string through the top, and weighted it heavily round with stones; then we arranged three fire-crackers inside, with their heads pointing together, all of which is represented in Fig. 1. We also bored two holes in the top, and wedged a couple of crackers through them. Then, taking care that all the fuses were in perfect order and of the same length, we got our tackle ready, and prepared to lower our diving-bell. At the right moment all the fuses were lighted at once, and down she went to the bottom of the pool. It was an anxious moment as we watched the result. Presently puff; then puff, puff, in rapid succession; and then up came puffs of one at a time and two together, and then a big one came to the surface. We had seen our diving-bell turn white side up, like a shark, and now we hauled it up, to find it a good deal blackened inside, and, if my memory serves me right at this length of time, with one of the sides split. We were in hopes of blowing it to pieces, but still, as it was, we pronounced it a glorious success. [Illustration: Fig. 2.] After this we tried some further experiments, the result of which astonished me not a little. We simply attached small arrow-shaped pieces of clay, like this (Fig. 2), to the ends of fire-crackers, lighted the fuses, and then, waiting until they were on the point of explosion, threw them into the water. Down they went, and exploded at the bottom, and up came the little puffs of white smoke. I confess I was astonished, for I certainly expected the water would extinguish them before they were half way down. It was glorious fun, and we avoided the noise of the crackers, and they burned nothing--except, perhaps, the fish. JUST SO. BY M. E.