"Suddenly he signalled to be pulled up, and they hoisted away. As he rose he held a lump of something in his hand, and passed it to Captain Roberts, who was standing on the deck of the schooner.
"It was a lump that looked like coal; but it was heavier than coal by a great deal. Examination showed that it was a mass of twenty-four silver dollars, all melted and charred together, but still distinguishable as dollars.
"The question was settled. The wreckers retired to Hong-kong during the six months that the north-east monsoon blows, and in the following March they returned to their work. In 1876 they recovered about twenty-five thousand dollars; and in the two following years the whole of the treasure was secured. It was one of the finest wrecking operations ever known. And here is one of the dollars that lay for three years at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean."
As he spoke, Captain Johnson drew from his pocket an American trade-dollar bearing the date 1874. It was quite black from the effect of its long immersion in the ocean, but otherwise was as perfect as when it came from the mint at San Francisco. The boys were greatly interested in this curious coin, and so was Doctor Bronson. It was passed from one to the other of the trio, and the boys were for some minutes so thoroughly engrossed in examining it that they had no attention to bestow on anything else.
CORAL-FISHING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN.
Frank wished to know whether there was any coral or other curious products of the sea where the wreck of the Japan was lying at the bottom of the ocean.
