San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-01-23

UlHrS ~1Ulf7uv5evrnrnS Vrrv MINI Do courc
not be drowned, and no shark would bite him.
l said he was a queer man. The reader prob
ably agrees with me. / give my word and
honor that every statement l shall make is
true, and can be proved true.
Our carpenter was laid up with q broken
leg, and when Finch announced that he could
use tools he became carpenter temporarily.
After we left Valparaiso, no longer doubling
the story of his two days float, he gave us a
marvellous exhibition Of his skill rs a swim
mer. In running back to the south westruck
the flag end of a cyclone and got terrible
sea. Our big ship was pitched about like a
pea, and the waves walled up on US now and
then until their crests seemed to tower fifty
feet above the rail Everything was dashed
end double dashed, and the cook could not
make us even a cup of coffee for twenty
hours While we were lying to and hanging
on for life Finch stripped to his shirt and
pants and went overheard for lark. The
best man among US would have been drawned
in five minutes He was in the water two
hours, and when he came out he did not puff
as heavily as a man who had run across the
street. A hundred times in these two hours
we thought he was lost, but he had no more
fear for himself than as if he was on dry land
In the sixteen months l saw him go over
board as many as fifty times, in all sorts of
weather, and by day and by night, and yet
he never met with an accident.
/ stated that no shark would bite him. He
proved this fact thousand times over. Har-
Dor sharks, for reasons best known to them
selves, will sometimes pass a swimmer by,
but they are small fry compared to the big
hammer heads and white sharks of midocean.
=. L. Gzl-
in tropical waters. When a whaler is en-
gagged In cutting in and trying out, and is
drifting Off before the wind, your real man
eater appears. / have seen them twenty-five
feet long, barnacled up and moss grown like
ancient whales, and evidently a hundred
years old. These DIRE the demons of the deep,
who will rush upon raft and upset it or tear
it to pieces, and who seem to feel no pain from
che prick of lance. We got whale to the
southwest of Conception, hundred miles of
shore, and Finch gave us his first exhibition.
We had an eighty barrel fish dashed head and
tail to our starboard side, and were just hook
ing on to the first blanket piece to hoist away,
when three or four monster sharks appeared.
| The one who came up astern was Of such size
| that the men called out in amazement He
| lay with his dorsal fin above water, and we
| could see every inch of him. 1t was enough
| to give you a chill to note his wicked ewes and
| his awful mouth.
When Finch saw this shark he said he
would drive him away The captain ordered
him to go about his business, not wishing to
] lose a man, but Finch waited until the OIL
| GERS were of their Iguard, and then went
| overheard of the lee bow with q great splash.
| There was wild cry from the crew and q
rush with ropes, but Tom looked up and
laughed and swan around the stern Of the
| ship. The big man eater had backed off
about twenty feet at the splash, but two
others, almost as large had come up on the
| quarters, and there lay three Of the wicked
| est fish in the Atlantic ocean. Everybody
| shouted and gestured and half O dozen
ropes ends were thrown to Tom, but he
would not mind US He suddenly sank be-
| low the surface and made bee line for the
big fish, and, to my surprise, the old fellow
| darted aside to escape the collision.
1t Is truth to the letter That Tom Finch
| drove every one Of those monsters away from
| the ship, and for an hour he padded about in
| the water and was unframed. In the course
| Of a couple OF hours the big shark returned.
| A piece of blubber was tied up in an old coat
| and dropped overheard, and he made a dash
| of a hundred feet and bolted it down like q
| fasl. He then took up his station off our
| quarter, and not over thirty feet away, and
| the sailor mounted the rail and made a long
| leap right at him. The shark went OFF like
streak and we saw him no more.-Nsw York
| san.
CANINE INTELLIGENCE.