Stephens City star. (Stephens City, Va.) 1881-1883, 1883-06-23
UNDER WATER.
A Divers Experience With Sharks and
Other Creatures OF the Vastly Deep.

A Divers Experience with sharks and
other Creatures OF the Vastly Deep.
Harry II. Ballard, of New Orleans,
one of the eighteen marine or salt
water divers of the United States, was
found confined to his room in the pay
ward of the Cincinnati hospital by an
attack of inflammatory rheumatism,
caused by exposure as a diver.
"Did you not fear the sharks in your
diving expeditions ?" asked an E'aqAir-
er reporter.
"That is subject about which there
is great deal of humbug. Old sailors
with lots of idle time on their
hands love to spin yarns about the fe-
rocity of sharks. The shark is cow
ardly fish. He never attacks You un-
less you provoke the quar-
rel. 1 have met thousands of them
and had them swim all around me,
with their horrid, CLASSY, deathlike
eyes glaring at me and their huge
mouths under their belly swapping as
though ready to swallow me. The
noise that the air makes roaring into
the shells frightens them and then
they see that the man is moving about.
At Callao harbor, which is a regular
sharks nest, went down forty feet or
more and met lots of these ocean dev-
lis, but none of them offered to molest
me.
Divers have various expedients for
avoiding these animals, and one was
told me on the Peruvian coast. A di-
yer was at work on the wreck Of a
Spanish man-of-war in West India
waters. A safe containing $3,000,00(
was the object of his search, and after
hours of patient labor the treasure
was found. While he was shackling
heavy iron chains to the treasure box
a dark shadow, long and motionless
suddenly attracted his attention.
Looking upward he saw huge spot
ted shark, twenty feet long, poised
above and watching every movement
as a cat does mouse. The diver for
got about the $3,000,000, and walking
a short distance, was on the point of
signaling to the tender to pull him up
when a glance convinced him that ii
would be sure death. The shark
watched his every movement, ant
with scarcely perceptible movement
of his tail, overshadowed his victim
with its huge proportions. Never be-
fore had the diver more need Of cool
ness and nerve, together with his wits
about him. He spied long layer o.
mud close at hand, and he moved tow
ard it. The shark followed, gliding
stealthily toward him, while thrill
of horror ran through his veins. With
an iron bar he stirred the mud, which
rose thick and fast above him; tn,
clear, golden light of the water disap
peared, and the diver escaped.
"The only scare 1 ever had with ;
fish was when 1 first went down of
the South American coast. I had
great big crowbar in my hand, whicl
perhaps fell about foot or eighteel
inches below my feet. Just beneath
mo lay huge cuttle-fsh fast asleep
OF course 1 did not see him, and tn
crowbar went clear through him. Th
cuttle-fish has peculiar mode of at
tack. He discharges black humo
which makes the water look like ink
The first thing / knew it was so blacl
all around me could not see my han'
before my face. /. couldn't imagin
what had broken loose and / signale'
to pull me up. The natives all laugh
ed and told me it was only cutie
fish. Not long after the cuttlefsh wa
worked ashore and there was my crow
bar gone clear through him."-Cif1
nislr.gM ENQUIRER.