Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1889-04-12
TIE SEA TIGER.
THE FERoCIoUs CHARACTER,
ISTICS OF THE SHARK.
Rapacity, Strength. Size, Vanity and
Commercial Value ofthe Scav-
enger of the Ocean-NIeth-
DDS of Catching.

coward, aud will often run at the
slightest noise. The ordinary shovel
nose is famous coward, aud scores OF
times / have been in swimming in
Southern waters whore they we're pass
ing up and down Immediately previous,
the splash and noise frightening them
away. Sharks in their method of at
tack call to mind a lot of wild dogs.
remember once noticing an OBJ Get leap
ing out OF the water in u curious way and
put out to it to find it the body Of COW
that had been thrown overheard. 1t was
swollen by the generation of gases and
was surrounded by sharks. One big
fellow would seize and haul it under
then several would grapplc with it, SO
that tho body appeared to be alive. leap
ing out of the water to escape the hungry
horde. The sharks did not turn upon
their sides, but rushed up, buttng the
mass out of water, and Selling it would
shake it us dog would, endeavoriug to
tear out piece of flesh. They finally
tore it apart and carried it to the bottom.
Sharks range in size from small spcci-
mons up to monsters from fifty to sixty
feet in length The ordinary man eater,
oarcharodon, ranges from seven to thirty
ieet, one exceeding the latter length
having been caught in Australian waters.
such 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,
uasking shark, huge harmless mon-
ster, with small teeth and whalbone-
like arrangement in the throat. Speci-
mens of til S shark have Leen captured
having u length Of from forty TO sixty
feet, aud others seen that attained at
least seventy feet Our common basking
shark attains length of forty or fifty
feet. A friend of the writer killed one,
and when it was dashed alongside of his
schooner, which was of sixty tons bur-
den, it was longer than tho vessel; and
he informed me that relative had
taken ono much larger, or somewhere
near sixty feet in length.
The man eater Of the South Atlantic
would seem large enough, hut in the
oldcn days when our Atlantic seaboard
was under watcr-therc lived q man
eater that must have been at loast 100
feet long. Nothing is left to tell the
story of this G ant but the teeth, which
are now found in the deposits ut Charles
ton, ). g., and dredgcd from the bot
tom of the river in that vicinity. They
still retain the beautiful polish which
charactcrizes those Of living sharks to-
day. and are of enormous size for teeth,
some of the largest being almost as largo
as an outstretchcd palm. Tho huge
teeth--and imagine the mouth that held
eight rows of them Arc sometimes
dredged in the deep Atlantic by the
scientific cXi editions. Such large fish
could have well battlcd with the great
whales of the time and the gigantic sea
serpents which possibly peopled the
shoal waters of the coasts.
In feeding from the bottom, in nv Oh
servations, the shark is very deliberate
often swimming up aud down by Il bait
some time before he finds it, The pilot
nshes will dart at it long before.
When the shark is within two or
three ieet it evidently notices the
door, and have seen one pass over
baited hook, stop and back up and
take 1t into the mouth slowly, so that
IN iishing 1t is always best to give
plenty of line, fifteen or twenty feet at
least, before jerking in tho 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 lipc-pulling in and slack
ing will often drown shark. and with
unlimited rope | have managed sharks
and brought them TO the beach, where
ordinarily eight or ten men were required
for the work. AS soon rs a shark is
hooked he makes bolt, and when
checked will make breaks in ali direc.
lions, endeavoring to break the rome.
lie must be taken in when slack can Inc
made, then let run and kept on the
move-a ser cs of operations which soon
break his spirit. III boat l generally
let shark run for half mile, then took
in the slack slowly, and, when he was
well in, passed the line astcrn, and hauled |
the head partly out OF water, In this
way large shark can be readily towed. !
The shark is one of the scavengcrs of
the ocean. Nothing comes amiss to its
palate, and its value does not end here.
Valuable shark fisheries are established
in many countries. One hundred years
ago or more the 'bone shark fisheries
were almost as important us the San
Diego whale fisheries of to-day. The
big shark was killed for its liver, which
was made into an oil, having q decided
commercial value aad to day big sharks
are caught in Greenland, where the
"spec" is considered as rrcncy. On
the northern coast of Norway there is n
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 dogish set inshorc
on the Maine coast and entirely destroy
the other fishing.
In point of numbers the dogGsh num-
Der millions, often completely filling
bays. The suddcnness of their arrival 4
can be imagined by the writer's expert. /
.enco. On Tuesday, say caught ali the !
brake, cod, ling and other fish iwantcd. +,
On Wednesday not QUO 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 tho
fisherman to do but to face this; and so /
all hands went dogishing, and dories
came in loaded to the eunwale with the
sharks. Some men stood with tho har