St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-07-02
to say no twenty seven years ago when
Pompous Father = You may 60, AL
frad
THE OCEAN TIGER.
The Ravenous Character of the
Various Species of Sharks.

The Ravenous Character of the
Various Species of Sharks.
Newcastle Gng.l Chronicle.
1t was reported the other week that a
sailor engaged in scraping the sides OF a,
troop ship in the harbor of Sierra Leohei
was drawn into the water and promptly
devoured by shark. This is not an UNI
common experience, and q boatman has
been bitten in the short time it took him
to dip up pitcher of water, While MS
craft was under full sail. We are assured
it is nothing uncommon for the raven
Gus fish to spring foot out of the sea
in order to secure their prey. For miles
they will follow vessel; on the lookout
for any stray unfortunate who may
tumble or be thrown overheard, and so
deep do they swim under the surface
that it requires the practiced eyes OF
the natives to detect their presence.
Many of the West Indian harbors are so
haunted by the white and hammer
headed sharks-the least amiable of the
$50 different kinds known to biologists
that it is dangerous to bathe even
few yards from the shore without an
outlook being posted.
Yet the West African negro has been
known to face the brute, not only with
in the end. All but amphibiOuS, the
swimmer cautiously approaches his en-
envy, and then, just at the moment
when the great fish turns over to seize
him-hiS mouth being so placed that 1t
is necesSary-the daring black plungeS
his knife into its white belly. The
pearl divers are also sometimes sue
cesSful in their attacks on sharks which
try to seize them, though, it is needless
to add, such mode of combat is possible
only when the monsters do not come IN
numbers, and under the most favorable
circumstances requires GOODNESS,
deXterity and courage which are not
to be acquired except by long expert
ence in such perllouS encounters. AS
rule, however, it is seldom that a man
who is so luckless as to drop among
sharks ever appears again. There is
the surface and fin above it, red
dened crest tops the next swell which
breaks against the ships side, and the
horror-Stricken seamen know that their
meSSmate will be seen no more.
1t is a we'll aScertained fact that the
skeletons of sheep, pigs, dogs and cat
tie which have fallen or been thrown
overheard have been recovered many
days subsequent to their being swal-
lowed; and it is on record that in the
stomach of shark killed in the Indian
ocean a lady's work-boX was found.
while in another the lncriminatory pa
pers which had been thrown away by a
hOtly-chased SLAYER were recovered
from the nav of an involuntary
witness thus curiously brought in
to court on the barb of a pork
baited hook. Ruysch, one of the most
trustworthy of the old naturalist
affirms that man in mail was found l..
the stomach of white shark, and it Is
recorded by Blumenbach that in one
case whole horse was found. 1t is I'M
deniable that many have been killed
with ample capacity for such undesir-
able contents; and Basil Hall tells of
one out of which was taken the whole
skin of buffalo, besides host of other
tritles which had been dropped astern
in the course of the previous week.