In certain parts of the sea bottom in the immediate vicinity of the British Islands, as in the Clyde district, among the Hebrides, in the Moray Firth, and in the German Ocean, there are depressed areas, forming a kind of submarine valleys, the centres of which are from 80 to 100 fathoms, or more, deep.

This great expanse of water is divided by the peninsula of Italy (including Sicily), continuous with which is a submarine elevation carrying less than 1,200 feet of water, which extends from Sicily to Cape Bon in Africa, into two great poolsan eastern and a western.

Whether such a metamorphosis as this occurs in submarine deposits, as well as in those formed in fresh water, does not appear; but there seems no reason to doubt that it may.

Two battle-cruisers which had been mined or submarined, one towing the other, would be a pretty picture in the Sound.

The politician, with his quick House-of-Commons wits, jumped to the idea before his slower thinking expert colleague could sort out the two battle-cruisers who were to be mined or submarined from the two which were to speed away south to avenge the recent disaster.

Then the crew of the exposed warship wait and wonder with a sickening cold fear in their hearts how soon the crash will come, and pray that the deadly submarine torpedo will miss its mark.

Submarine torpedo-boats are actual, practical working vessels to-day, and already they have to be considered in the naval plans for attack and defense.

It was during the American Revolution that a man went below the surface of the waters of New York Harbour in a submarine boat just big enough to hold him, and in the darkness and gloom of the under-water world propelled his turtle-like craft toward the British ships anchored in mid-stream.

On the outside shell of the craft rested a magazine with a heavy charge of gunpowder which the submarine navigator intended to screw fast to the bottom of a fifty-gun British man-of-war, and which was to be exploded by a time-fuse after he had got well out of harm's way.

Slowly and with infinite labour this first submarine navigator worked his way through the water in the first successful under-water boat, the crank-handle of the propelling screw in front of him, the helm at his side, and the crank-handle of the screw that raised or lowered the craft just above and in front.

The little iron plate, however, prevented the screw from taking hold, the tide carried the submarine past, and the chance was lost.

The piece of iron in the keel of the British warship probably put back development of submarine boats many years, for Bushnell's boat contained many of the principles upon which the successful under-water craft of the present time are built.

One hundred and twenty-five years after the subsurface voyage described above, a steel boat, built like a whale but with a prow coming to a point, manned by a crew of six, travelling at an average rate of eight knots an hour, armed with five Whitehead torpedoes, and designed and built by Americans, passed directly over the spot where the first submarine boat attacked the British fleet.

With a clang the lid-like hatch to the conning tower was closed and clamped fast in its rubber setting, the gasoline engine began its rapid phut-phut, and the submarine boat began its long journey down Long Island Sound.

[Illustration: LAKE'S SUBMARINE TORPEDO-BOAT PROTECTOR

She is provided with wheels that support her when on the bottom, and with a divers' compartment from which divers can work on submarine cables or the enemies' explosive mines.]

When all but the conning tower was submerged the captain looked at the compass to see how she was heading, noted that no vessels were near enough to make a submarine collision likely, and gave the word to the man at his feet to dive twenty feet.

he said swelling visibly with importance; "I was once a poor boy, without a penny of my own, and now I am a comfortable man, and have my submarine villa to go to every evening".

That "submarine villa" was an object of amusement when we passed it in our walks for many a long day.

"There is Mr. 's submarine villa", some one would say, laughing: and I, too, used to laugh merrily, because my elders did, though my understanding of the difference between suburban and submarine was on a par with that of the honest grocer.

"There is Mr. 's submarine villa", some one would say, laughing: and I, too, used to laugh merrily, because my elders did, though my understanding of the difference between suburban and submarine was on a par with that of the honest grocer.

One other ground of complaint I have against the book is that its most original and attractive character, the American woman to whose generosity Jennet owes her occupancy of Fullbrook Manor, is banished at an early page, and submarined just when I was looking for her reappearance.

It seems odd, but the arm of this submarine monster, over a mile long for all that I knew, was a bond of union between the lovely Miss Minturn and me.

Mickey Mouse and the pirate submarine.

In the vicinity of Cape Van Diemen there are many submarine coral banks, that are not yet shoal enough to be called reefs; that which Captain Flinders saw, and sounded upon in seven fathoms, lies in 9 degrees 56 minutes latitude, and 129 degrees 28 minutes longitude.