New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1883-01-31
!, Shark

Z l. 2 $50 +
Sharks, as rule. have round bodies.
Pointing with his stick to a large illus
tration Of . shark on the screen, the
Professor desired his a .nce to note
that the mouth was away down UNDER
meath the head, instead Of At the ante
rior Of the head, as in most fishes. The
most marked characteristic of sharks is
their voracity. They will eat anything
that comes in their way, and their jaws
are provided with numerous sets of
teeth, so that a. soon as one set are
torn ont or rendered worthless, another
set takes their place.
The lecturer held up to view the jaws
OF . good-sized shark, and explained
that the teeth were set in tough but
very durable cartilage. The teeth of
most sharks will come out very easily.
The size to which sharks grow can be
Judged by their teeth. In the jaws ex-
hibited by Professor Bickmore the teeth
were about as large as mans thumb
nail, but the Professor showed large
tooth which he said must have belonged
to shark 80 or so feet long. The tooth
was about six inches long, and was
found in phosphate bed in South
Carolina. The teeth of some sharks,
particularly the man-eaters, are sharp
and pointed like spikes, while the teeth
of another class of sharks are set into
the jaws fiat like paving-stones.
In q spare hour on board ship a sailor
will take as much satisfaction in sharp
ening shark hook as a barber does in
strapping razor. After shark is
captured and hauled aboard the vessel
the sailors cut it up into as many small
pieces as possible before throwing it
overheard. Sharks are as tenacious of
life as cats, and it is necessary to cut
them all to pieces in order to kill them.
On one occasion some sailors caught q
good-sized shark, and, after getting it
on deck, dispatched it, as they thought.
They cut out one entire side of it's
mouth and threw the mangled carcass
back into the water. A little while
afterward they caught the same shark,
apparently as full Of life and mischief as
ever.
The shape and peculiarities of the
thrashing shark were shown and de-
scribed. This fish has tough and ugly
looking tail longer than the body, with
which it thrashes and disables its enc
mics. It is formidable and relentless
adversary of the whale, and hunts the
leviathan of the deep in company with
the sword-fish. "These fish travel in
packs like wolves" said the Professor.
When whale is attacked the sword
fish go down under it, and by pricking
and cutting it in the belly they force
tho monster to rise to the surface of the
water. Then the thrashing sharks raise
their tails and lash the whale across
the back. The sword-ish and the
sharks keep up their combined assaults
until their mammoth, but as against
them, powerless adversary is dead.
The only part of the whale that is
eaten by the thrashing sharks Is the
tongue. It is not known that the sword
fish eat any part of a whale. They ap-
pear to Join with the thrashing sharks
in assaulting whales only out Of pure
viciousness. ''With all their voracity,'
the lecturer said. ''the sharks are en-
titled to the credit of caring for one an
other. Young sharks are watched and
protected by the older ones" Professor
Bickmore next took up the rays OF
skates, and pointed out the principal
characteristics of theses fishes. Some
rays. he said, were regular electric bat
teries, which could produce currents OF
electricity from their body of sufficient
power to knock a strong man down.
From q Letter bu Professor Bick7nore.