But Chinese wreckers and Chinese thieves are on the alert. Wattai, or
some such queer piratical Celestial with devilish propensities, went
for the spoil, settling the salvage by arithmetic of his own. The
wreck was removed from the skylight, and under the water, in that
dense chamber, stagnant with mephitic air, the bruised, stupefied hong
was found.

As is apparent from a previous example, the tendency of the sea-sand
to absorb and conceal a sunken vessel is one of those difficulties
that beset the explorer. But for that the recovery of treasure would
be more frequent, the profession or business more lucrative. The
number of vessels sunk annually, we learn from Lloyd's statistics, is
one hundred thousand tons to the English commercial marine; and out of
551 vessels lost to the royal navy, 391 were sunk. Sir Charles Lyell
estimates that there might be collected in the sea more evidences of
man's art and industry than exist at any one time on the surface of
the earth. But while the sea preserves, it hides. An example of the
kind occurred in the wreck of the Golden Gate, a California steamer
heavy with bullion. It occurred during the war, and the only expert
diver within reach was an expatriated rebel. He had been a man of
fortune, but, venturing too rashly in the Confederacy, he lost by
confiscation and perhaps persecution. However, he was the man for the
insurance companies, and a treaty was concluded, allowing him sixty
per cent. salvage.

The vessel had gone down in tide water. The persistent sea had rocked
and rocked it, and washed the tenacious quicksands about it, and
finally concealed it. The search for it was long and tedious, and
once given up or nearly given up. But as the disappointed diver was