The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-02-27
THE SEA TIGER.
THE FEROCIOUS CHARACTER
( IsTICS OF THE SHARK.
Rapacity, Strength, Size, Vanity ana
Commercial Value of the Sca'-
enger of the Ocean-Meth-
DDS of Catching.

Ehole cloth. The fish is really a hlg
coward, and will often run at the
slightest noise. The ordinary shower.
nose is famous coward, and scores OF
times I have been IN swimming IN
Southern waters where they were pass
ing up and down Immediately previous,
ihe splash and noise frightening them
fway. Sharks in their method OF at.
|ack call to mind lot of wild dogs: l
Remember once noticing an OBJ ect leap,
8nS out of the water in q curious way and
but out to it to find it the body OF COW
hat had been thrown overheard. 1t was
wollen by the generation Of gases anu
Eas surrounded by sharks. One pig
Fellow would seize and haul it under;
khen several would grapple with 1t, so
Fthat the body appeared to be alive. leap
ing out of the water to escape the hungry
horde. The sharks did not turn upon
Ftheir sides, but rushed up, buttlng the
mass out of water, and scizing 1t would
shake it as dog would, endeavorlng to
tear out piece of flesh: They, finally
tore it apart and carried it to the bottom.
Sharks range in size from small specl-
mems up to monsters from fifty to sixty
feet in length. The ordinary man cater,
carcharodon, ranges from seven to thirty
fleet, one exceeding the latter length
having been caught in Australian waters.
Such a monster would dine upon q
horse with perfect ease, and the eating
capacity of some of them is astonishing.
The largest living shark is the rhinodon'
| . basking shark, huge, harmless mon
ster, with small teeth and whalbone-
like arrangement in the throat. Specl.
linens of tbs shark have Eeen captured
having length of from forty to sixty
lfeet, and Others seen that attained at
least seventy feet. Our common basklng
shark ettains length of forty or nifty
feet. A friend of the writer killed one,
(snd when it was lashed alongside of his
schooner, which was of sixty tons bur,
(den, it was longer than the vessel; and
|he informed me that relative had
taken one much larger, or somewhere
near sixty feet in length.
The man eater of the South Atlantic
would seem large enough, but IN the
|olden days when our Atlantic seaboard
Twas under water-there lived man
eater that must have been at least 100
fleet long. Nothing is left to tell the
Story of this giant but the teeth, which
Ihre now found in the deposits at Charles
on, 5. G., and redgcd from the bot
Lom of the river in that vicinity. They
still retain the beautiful polish which
lcharacterizes those of living sharks to-
day. and are of enormous size for teeth,
some of the largest Icing almost as large
as an outstretched palm. The huge
1teeth-and imagine the mouth that held
eight rows of them .-ale sometimes
Iiredged in the deep Atlantic by the
scientific exi editions. such large fish
could have we'll battled with the great
whales of the time and the gigantic sea
'serpents which possibly peopled the
j;hoal waters of the coasts.
In feeding from the bottom, in my OBJ
servations. the shark is very deliberate,
often swimming up and down by bait
some time before he finds it. The pilot
fishes will dart at it long before.
When the shark is within two or
three feet it evidently notices the
odor, and I have seen one pass over q
baited hook, stop and back up and
take it into the mouth slowly, so that
lin fishing it is always best to give
|plenty OF line, fifteen or twenty feet at
least, before jerking in the hook. BY
this time the shark has taken the hook
thoroughly into the mouth and it is quite
sure to take hold. In fishing for sharks
one man can conquer the largest if he
has sufficient line-pulling in and slack
ling will often drown shark, and with
unlimited rope l have managed sharks
and brought them to the beach, where
ordinarily eight or ten men were required
for the work. AS soon as q shark Is
booked he makes bolt, and when
checked will make breaks in all dircc-
tons, endeavoring to break the rope.
He must be taken in when slack can be
made, then let run and kept ON the
move-a ser es of operations which soon
break his spirit. In boat generally
let shark run for half mile, then took
lin the slack slowly, and, when he was
we'll in, passed the line astern, and hauled
the head partly ont of water. In this
way large shark can he readily towed.
The shark is one of the scaveugers of
the ocean. Nothing comes amiss to its
palate, aud its value does not end here.
Valuable shark fisheries are established
in many countries. Ore hundred years
ago or more the ''bone shark fisheries
were almost as important as the San
Diego whale fisheries of to-day. The
big shark was killed for its liver, which
was made into an OIL, having decided
commercial value, and TO duy big sharks
are caught in Greenland, where the
spec is considered as Currency. On
the northern coast of Norway there is q
shark fishery carried on in very deep
water; the oil is used and the bodies are
taken a. hore and made in:o guano.
In the vicinity of Booth Bay, Me-,
large buildings are often seen upon the
shore ha ing the sign "Dogtish Fac
tory." This means that the small shark
known as dogfsh is bought there. 1t
often happens in the last of summer that
immense schools of dogIish set inshore
on the Maine coast and entirely destroy
the other fishing.
In point of numbers the dogfsh num-
ber millions, often completely filling
bays. The suddcnness of their arrival
can be imagined by the writer's expert.
ence. On Tuesday, say, caught all the
brake, cod, ling and other fish WANTED.
On Wednesday not one could be had on
the same grounds. Before the line got
below the surface many feet dog sh
had the bait. There was nothing for the
fisherman to do but to face this; and so
all hands went doghshing, aud dories
came in loaded to the gunwale with tue
sharks. Some men stood with the har-
poon in hand and flung them into the