A new era of undersea exploration began in I944, when a trio of young Frenchmen slipped below the surface of the Mediterranean Sea with the first aqualung. In the coming decades Jacques Cousteau would become an international celebrity and bring photos and film of the world beneath the waves--the silent world--to a fascinated public. In his first book, co- written with his diving companion Freddrick Dumas, Cousteau lyrically describes the experience of being the first "menfish," swimming among manta rays, whales, octopi, and sharks. He describes exploring sunken ships and the treasures they held. He describes ventures into undersea grottoes and an inland water cave that nearly claimed their lives, and their death- defying experiments with underwater explosions. Cousteau writes brilliantly about his audacious 5o-fathom dive into the "zone of rapture," where divers become like drunken gods, and of the tragic 396-foot dive that took acompanion's life. He writes of seeing blood flow green, waltzing with an octopus, hitchiking on a tortoise, discovering an octopus city, and outwitting a trio of curious sharks. This is a thrilling tale full of exploration, danger, adventure, and awe at the splendor to be found in the silent world beneath the sea.