The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1883-05-23
Sharks.

London World.
Sharks.
A volume could be written about
the habits and traits of the tropical
sharks, says Nassau (West Indies)
correspondent of the New York E0en-
ing Post. In the teeming fish-life of
these tepid waters they find abundant
food, all the more easily captured be-
cause of the transparency of the sea-
1t follows that there is an enormous
development of shark-lfe, both as TO
number and species, as compared with
more temperate ocean climes. In his
relations with the fishermen the shark
is vile marplot. You may be glee-
fully hauling in fish after fish, and
congratulating yourself on an hour or
two of sport. Suddenly, Just as you
have started a four-pounder upward,
you see a cleaning white flash. Pull
rapidly as you will, but you will pull
in vain. Thirty feet more of line, it
may be, are drawn in. when the hook
seems to strike a rock Perhaps the
check is but momentary; then, on
drawing in, you find only the head of
a handsome fish whose body has gone
into Mr.. Sharks NAV. But more likely
you have put too much strain upon the
line, and in that case the shark, fearing
the escape Of the prey, has bolted
hook, fish and sinker, so that only
the severed line comes back. The
negro fishermen, with the aid of their
water-glasses, have been able to make
thorough studyof the habits Of these
pirates of the deep, and give the shark
high character for cunning. AS
these negroes aver, a shark viii some
! times follow a boat for mile until it
comes to anchor. Then, lying in the
shadow of some subaqueous rock, so as
not to frighten the fish from biting,
the shrewl fellow will dart out the
instant a hooked victim begins the
ascent. With hungry shark around,
not mure than one out of three hooked
fish ever reaches the rail; and there is
prOpOrtionate and VeXatiOus loss of
hooks and sinkers. After his novel
fishing is ended, the shark rids himself
of these impediments by rubbing his
nose and lips against projecting rocks.
Sharks of the moderate size of ten
or twelve feet may sometimes be
caught with rope and huge hook
hung to a chain. But even then they
have clever way of following up the
! line, turning on the back, and by a
side snap Of the teeth cutting the cord
as cleanly as with Il knife. The
! larger and liercer species of tropical
Exrn 70 ~
long, have never been caught here by
line, and the negroes tell wOndrous
tales as to the chain hooks and huge
cords broken in taekling the big fell
lows. We have had lately here an
illustration Of their voracity. A negro
sailor had caught one day an ordinary
shark ten feet in length and weighing
some $50 pounds. lie left the crea-
ture over night on line attached to
his boat. The next morning only the
head was found. 1t had been severed
from the body by single clean cut
just behind the gills. AS rule, when
once the sharks get actively at work
around the lines the legitimate sport
ends for that anchorage in fifteen or
twenty minute, as the fish fly to the
rocks for protection. But sometimes
the fishermen, tying together a bottle
and piece of iron, drop it down on
cord attached to the boat. The rise
and fall of the craft on the waves keep
up a constant tinkling below, and, as
water is good sound conductor, the
sharks flee in terror, A ray of sun
light cast downward thr )ugh the water
glass often has a similar effect.
Chiari, the pathologist, who has
been made professor at Prague, is a
man thirty years old, who has already
made over 5000 post-mortem eXamna-
tions. At a recent supper given in
his honor, one of the speakers said he
could not wish for any greater hap
piness than being post-mortemed-if
one many use the expression-by his
friend Chiari.
Our lives are like some complicated
machine, workingon one side OF a wall,
and delivering the finished fabric on
the other. We cannot cross the bar
rier and see the end. The work is in
our hands-the completion is not.
Canary colored diamonds are much
sought after a. present, as indeed are
oil f4nlara1 fr,Iy