Читать книгу Into the Abyss. Diving to Adventure in the Liquid World онлайн

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On another occasion we were swimming in a group of about 4 divers along the very bottom of some plunging cliffs looking into sub-sea caves when I saw my first bird flying underwater. This bird flapped its way down my bubble stream from the surface and swam right up to my mask homing in on the source of the bubbles, which it no doubt took for a shimmering feast of small fish. It got a shock when unexpectedly, it came face to face with a 6’ 2” Scotsman. It did an emergency brake in its flight through the water right in front of my face and stared at me for a second or two, no doubt trying to work out what this big, noisy, unusual visitor to its realm was doing. After working out that there was no food here, and that it may become food itself if it hung around, it beat its wings again and shot off towards the surface.

This bird was something of a vanguard, for as soon as it had disappeared, in quick succession, countless other birds came screaming into the water, plunging downwards and speeding through our group leaving a small trail of bubbles to mark their passing - as if someone had been spraying machine gun bullets down through the water towards us.