But when the diver gets to a hard bottom he is not handicapped in this way, and in sunnier climes and seas he can easily see at a depth of 100 feet. The sea-growths around Great Britain are not to be compared in size and colouring with the lovely tropic growths of coral and fern-like weed found in the warmer waters. Out, for instance, in the Pacific the depths of some of the lagoons are just like Fairyland: filmy forests of ribbons and ferns, inhabited by fish of the most gorgeous and dazzling colours, butterflies of the deep. This submarine scenery, in its way, is as beautiful as anything to be found on earth. More than one salvage man in the past has made a snug fortune salving ships on the distant coasts of South America and the Pacific, often in the most simple manner by patching and pumping. Until comparatively recently the salvage man, if he wanted to lift a vessel, generally bought up a couple of old hulks and used these for slinging the wreck inshore. By the time the wreck was beached, the hulks were about smashed to pieces. The principle of lifting a ship by means of a coffer-dam has already been indicated. It was a principle of which Mr. Tom Armit was a brilliant exponent. He raised several ships this way, building timbers all round to extend the hull upward, and then timbering all this over, virtually adding another deck to the ship. This coffer-dam, covering the whole ship, was made watertight, and, as it was pumped out, the added buoyancy refloated the ship. If leaks happened to manifest in the coffer-dam during pumping operations, the salvors calmly fed spun oakum into the water which carried it into the leak and soon stopped it! On occasions during a collision at sea, mattresses and clothes have been thrown into the water, which has carried them to the leak, where they have become wedged, enabling the sailors aboard ship to tackle the damage from the inside. Collision mats are specially made for such emergencies so that they may be lowered over the hole, the pressure of the water holding them tightly against the side of the ship and enabling the carpenter to get to work on the inside as the inrush of water is stopped. Another salvor’s trick is to stretch a tarpaulin over the hole to hold back the water. It is but temporary, yet it enables him to gain time to get timbers in place inside so that the pumps can then deal with the water that finds its way in. There are also special patches that may be pushed through the hole in the hull from the inside of the ship and opened out like an umbrella, after which they are drawn tightly against the hull by screwing up from the inside. Pontoons alone have raised more than one little wreck in the manner already described. Other small ships have been raised by filling their holds with air-tight bags which, upon being blown up, have striven to rise to the surface, carrying the wreck with them, much to the delight of the salvors.