CHAPTER III.
INTRODUCTION TO THE INHABITANTS.
WHILST fitting myself physically for the new life I was about to enter on, I was also engaged in adapting myself intellectually for the same object.
I have said nothing about the mode in which conversation is carried on below the water. Sound, as is well known, is transmitted more readily and with greater velocity through water than through air, but talking in the ordinary way is not practicable in water; for, with every word uttered, there comes out of the mouth a great bubble of air that very much interferes with the distinctness of the sound emitted, and has a most unbecoming and ridiculous appearance. Therefore, though a single word may occasionally be ejaculated, no conversation could be carried on in this way. And yet these submarine people are as great talkers as are to be found anywhere, and they have several different modes of conversing with one another; but all these modes are based on a common principle.
I have already stated that among the books in the Instructor's grotto were some which were filled with a strange character which I could not understand, consisting of dots and lines, like what we use in our telegraphic printing.
