washing and basins, are only to be met with on land. Below the water nothing of the sort is to be seen.
But in order to impart an artificial hilarity to them when they stand in need of it, they occasionally inhale something different from the ordinary oxygenated air. Houses fitted with tubes supplied with some artificially manufactured gases having curious exciting and exhilarating properties are numerous, and are much frequented, especially by the lower classes. The wealthier classes have private reservoirs of such gases, which they liberally offer to their visitors and friends. Some were reported to be in the habit of partaking of these gases more freely than was altogether good for them.
When the sun shines in full meridian splendour, the light at the bottom of the water is never overpowering, and no shades or screens are required to ward off his rays. And when he is low on the horizon his brilliancy is very much subdued. At sunset darkness sets in with great rapidity, and starlight or even moonlight scarcely affords any illumination. But the ingenuity of the Colymbians and their great acquirements in chemical science had, at an early stage of their existence as a nation, enabled them to illuminate the depths of their aqueous tenement in a very perfect manner.
This illumination is effected by means of electricity or galvanism. Wires are laid in every direction. Every house has its wires for illumination, and all the open spaces betwixt the houses are well furnished with electric lamps. These lamps are globes of dead white glass in which the charcoal points are fixed. As soon as the sun sinks so low
