The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1889-02-02


prod and pry at the masses of coral
But it was green and tough. / broke
away several pieces, then tried to wrench
out my leg again; but my foot, in its
laced boot, stuck fast. Three or four
times exerted all my strength, desper-
ately, then enatched the bar again.
"But by this time was nearly suffo-
eating for want of air. My excitement
and fear added to my need of breath, l
suppose Still l struck wildly at the
coral with the bar and several times hit
my own leg 1t was an awful sensation,
to be thus caught and held down under
water! Still tried to keep my breath
in, and once more wrenched at my foot
foot to get it clear.
"Then my breath went, in spite OF
myself. / looked up and saw the boat
over me, and Charles Bsnnost's face,
gazing down. / tried to cry out
to him, but choked, struggled and i'm
mediately lost all sense of what was &C.
curing.
"Bannost had sat looking down at
me. He could see me, though not very
distinctly; and he thought, all the time
that was plying and twisting at my
leg, that l was working off coral. Soon
he began to realize that | was remaining
down longer than usual, but did not
mistrust that anything was wrong with
me till, suddenly, a whole string of
bubbles rose to the surface of the water.
He knew that these bubbles must have
been made by air from my lungs, and at
once concluded that l was in danger.
''He instantly Owed, and alighting on
the coral within a few feet of where l
lay, still struggling, he was not long dis
covering what the trouble was. But it
was task that still required some time
to break away the coral sufficiently to
extricate me from my subaqueOus
hobble.
L
to rise to the surface without help;
and he was compelled to come up for
breath, and then dive again, with a line,
before he could haul me up.
"By this time / was about IS near
drowned as any person can we'll be and
be revived, but Charles got me into the
boat and then rolled me on a thwart,
worked my arms to start my breath, and
slapped and chafed me, till / came
round. He declared that it was fully
ten minutes before l was breathing
regularly again. afterward found that
my leg and foot mad been quite badly
bruised by the coral and the bar.
1.-The day before we left the Markeys,
to 60 back to Key West, l had still
another adventure, which was fai
from pleasant and which left even worse
scars than the first. We saw sharks row.
ing about the coral beds quite frequently,
and occasionally the shadow of one
would pass US, while down on the sea-
bottom. Yet they never molested us
and We returned the compliment by
letting them severely alone.
"But there was a teR-times worse fish
there and quite plenty, too, which they
called stingaree-a great, fat, disgust
ing creature, from two to three feet in
breadth, and six or seven in length.
They have two powerful side fins and a
tail ike a braided whip-lash, and they
get the name of stingarce from thr, G
stings, or bony spines, placed one above
the other. just forward of the junction
of this whip lash tail with the body.
"Their stings are five or six inches
long, with jagged edges like saw.
1.-THE stingaree does not go swimming
boldly about like the shark, but creep
along on the bottom, and when il come.
to some hollow, or depression, where
there is sGn6, or bits of shell and coral
it will begin to burrow, somewhat as
hen does in dust heap. Then when ,
has half buried itself it will lie and SUI
itself for hours.
Getting entangled in the coral ha'
given me such fright, that / woult
never dive after that without . lin
around me attached to the boat, If tn
water was more than fifteen feet deep
On the day speak of, was down wit
q line, in about twenty-six feet, thumT
ing away at table of brain coral; the
was grand dome Of it that kne'