Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-07-18
Sharks.

or more OF lof crow. Wnllc the vessel
is in the harbor, or riding in the ofting,
man falls overheard, or is capsized
from boat, or attempts to swim ashore,
and is torn to pieces by sharks, within
sound of human voices aud within sight
of help.
The Alice Daries, of Liverpool, re-
Gently returned to the Mersey, has
duly recorded in her log terrible cat
astrophe Of this kind. She was an
chored on u small river known as the
Probolingo, on the coast of Java, and
one Of the crew, q Welshman, by the
name of Owen, went with four others
to battle. They were all good swim
mers, and Owen, who was the most
skilifui, had ventured some little dis
lance from the vessel, when he was
suddenly heard to utter u piercing
shrek. a large shark, rising suddenly
from the bottom, had bitten him imme-
aiately below the fifth rib, and literally
torn him to pieces. Arope was thrown
to him, but his injuries were SO terri
Dlc that he Immediately sank. His
companions escaped uninjured, bat of
Ovens body no trace was recovered.
The shark which attacked him was, we
are told, judged to be some fifteen feet
in length. Such dimensions are not at
all unusual IN the Javanese seas.
The size Of the shark has been i'm
mensely exaggerated, but as to the dam
gerous nature Of the creature, there can
be no manner Of doubt. Ancient mar
liners are prone to long stories, which
it is their delight to dress up and mag
nify. Tules are told of sharks that have
reacLedi thirty, thirty five, forty, and
even fifty feet We may take such
measurements fof what they are worth.
The teeth of the shark no doubt are
very terrible. They are ranged row
behind row, and the muscles of its jaws
are OF enormous strength. But they
are fitted for rending and lacerating
rather than for cutting or severing.
Their action is not that of shears, but
rather OF the harrow or scarilier.
a shark of ten feet, or even eight,
will seize Il man by the thigh and strip
the flesh from his leg down to the heel,
or, with a firm grasp of the limb, and Il
powerful twist of its body in the water,
1t may possibly tear the leg out of the
socket. Such an injury, of course, is
as instantly fatal as ii the assailant had
cut his victim III two. There is no need
to cxaggerate the size of the shark ,lfor a
small shark, If hungry, is practically as
dangerous as Il large one.
Any old fisherman knows that dog
fish will attack cod or ling twice its
size, and, with five or six well directed
bites, tear it to pieces. 1t is thus that
n Sh "a Ilg Al NJ la IAllN
him, and descending below him, it rolls
over, and mounting, with its jaws up.
permost, intllcts u wound sufficiently
deadly to cause instant collapse. 1t is
the old story of the wolf attacking the
deer or the buffalo.
Indeed, the highly colored stories
among sailors rs to the size, strength
and voracity of the shark, do much 10
create u dangerous sense OF security.
When a ship is swinging at anchor in
the tropics, the hands will think moth
ing of venturing overheard for plunge,
if such few sharks as are seen about are
little, if any, bigger than q man; or,
late at night, they will drop noiselessly
over the side and swim ashore. Their
simple faith is, that unless O shark be
large enough to almost swallow a man
whole, he will not attack him; while it
is also part of the forecastle creed that
the shark sleeps at night.
Many an English sailor has paid the
penalty of his life for rashness of this
kind; and the ignorance current among
sailors, of the shark and its habits, is,
when we remember how the brute
swarms in tropical seas, something al
most astonishing. The old story of the
two pilot-iish which always accompany
the shark, and guide him to his prey, is
still gravely repeated, and as gravcly
believed. 1t is also an article of nauti-
cal faith that the shark knows when
there is dying man on board ship, and
will follow the vessel for miles, guided
by some sinister aud almost demOniacal
instinct. AS a matter of fact there are
always pilot fish to be seen in the wake
of vessel, only that they are not no.
ticed unless shark in their company
calls attention to them; while shark
will, for reasons of his own, invariably
follow vessel, whether there be sick
man in it or not.
The shark is not so much the tiger
as the vulture of the sea. He is cow
ardly, stupid, voracious fish, discharg-
ing the functions of a marine scavenger.
In the tropics he hangs around the
harbor mouth, gorging himself ON any
otfal that may come in his way; and he
follows ships for the same reason, snap
ping up every unconsldered trihe"
that may be thrown overheard, from a
mouldy biscuit or piece of putrid
pork, to condemned jacket or pair
of WORKOUT boots.
Like the vulture, he hositates to at
tack anything with life in it; but if
hungry, becomes for the time possessed
OF courage not his own. We shall never
exterminate him, and his presence in
tropical waters must always remain
constant source of danger. Meantime
he has at least the merit, that wherever
he may be found, he affords certain
rough species of sport. There is no
better fun than fishing for shark with
hook the size of pitch-fork, and a
huge piece Of pork by way of bait.
Harpooning the creature. is also excit-
ing amusement, although seldom prac-