The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-08-15
Shaking WITCH A HARPooN.
An Adventure WITH Man-Gaters Ia
the Caribbean sea.
FROM FrGnk Leslie's Weekly.

An Adventure With Man-Eaters ia
the Caribbean sea.
From Frank Leslie's Weekly.
Every vessel that sails the tropic seas has
its sharkhook, an ugly weapon made of
half-inch steel, attached to ten feet of chain
and fifty feet of rope The Ariel's was very
dull and very rusty, but we got it out,
! baited it with five pounds OF salt junk and
tossed 1t over the stern. The float. a billet
OF wood, kept it near the surface, and we
watched il drift slowly off with the tide.
My heart nearly stood still when l saw
great yellow tiger of the sea glide from the
shadow of the vessel straight toward the
hook. From the tip Of his murderous nose
TO the end Of his tail | judged hun to be
twelve feet long. His progress was exas-
peratingly slow, as if he were well-fed,
lazy and Indifferent. He seemed to float
rather than swim, for the fan-like motion
Of his tail was scarcely perceptible. His
body was as thick as a big man, and his
| mouth could not have been less than fifteen
inches wide. Inaver saw in any head q pair
of eyes SO villainous, and they appeared to
take in everything that was in the sea,
above the sea and under the sea for miles
around. The Lass rays Of the sun gave his
body silver border on the line where back
and belly meet and the effect was rather
startling as we gazed down al him from our
lofty percn.
A pilot accompanied him, thin, white
skinned fish. some twenty-six inches long a
creature with large head a great deal OF
tail and apparently no body. 1t propelled
Itself with "a disagreeab writhings motiol
that formed succession of SIS aud lowered
near the dorsal fin of its lord and master as
a tiny tug nestles under the lee Of an ocean
greyhound. The shark seemed to proceed
we'll enough without its assistance, but
saw him more than once send the little fell
low TO the front as a sort Of advance
courier, and as particular to note that
upon returning from such a mission the
pilot fastened itself upon the monsters
back, near the fin, and rode there in perfect
contentment till thoroughly rested, after
which 1t resumed travel on its own account
with the same reverse curves and SIS.
Our little party became highly excited
as the sea tiger approached the hook, and
we laid four pairs of hands on the line in
momentary expectation of an awful
struggle. How long we waited cannot res
member. 1t seemed an age before we were
able to realize our disappointment; an etsr-
| nifty before we could make ourselves UNDER
stand that our expected prey, in most IN
sulting manner, had turned up his nose at
the salt junk morsel and was lazily TICKLING
his ferootous lips with wad Of newspaper
that somebody had cast overheard.
But our detection at his loss was soon
| changed to white-hOt enthusiasm and
| feverish excitement, for scarcely had he
| obIhy gu D6IO uu OuT NlslOn Wu6u duOGu6F
| of his kind. big enough to eat him, drlfted
| up from under the steamers screw. Ah,
| what beauty He was followed by
second of moderate size and a third, evil
densly young and RASH. Then from the
open sea came pair Of full-grcwn males,
and from the direction of Basse Terre a
| giant OF the second degree. Soon their
presence attracted othsrs, and before the
| sun went down we counted sixteen. But
| none wanted our junk.
| One or two boats passed and the monsters
| would scarcely get out of their way. They
seemed positively without fear. An oar
| struck one big fellow on the back. and in
stead Of Frightening him away only aroused
| his fury. Leaping clear of che water be
| caught the offending blade in his teeth,
making splinters OF IL, and his tail striking
the boat split the gun vale and came near
splitting the whole crew into the sea. The
| excited native with the remnant of the oar
| punched at him as he disappeared, aud
missing his aim fell headlong into what
seemed the very jaws of death.
In our horror we forgot all about the hook
and salt junk. The darby stayed under a
long time. and expected every moment to
see his blood rise and stain the water. But
finally his head bobbed up serenely very near
| the spot where he had gone under, and he
struck out hand over hand for the boat
| Sharks were all around him, leaping over
each other and over him. He kept ducking
| MS mead Co aVOld their tails, which slapped
the water viciously. One blow would have
| scattered his brains in the sea. He was the
| coolest man / had ever seen, and the de-
liberate way he swan among those butchers
of the deep filed us with admiration. /
| begged the captain. who stood by watching
the scene, to lower a boat and save him, but
he only laughed.
"Why," said he, whats the use! Sharks
won't touch a Niger. and the washing will
| do the scoundrel good"
| / was soon half convinced of this. The
darky's only danger was from those terrible
tails. II he could succeed in lodging them
he would reach the ptnnace in safety. At
last he grasped the rudder untouched, and
two of the crew reached down to pull him
on board. | saw his body half out of the
water. Then he cried aloud in patois and
struggled to free his hands from the grip of
his rescuers. At that instant long yellow
object shot from the sea, swapping of
powerful jaws was heard, a crunchiug Of
flesh and bones, and all was still. BY and
by the blue water about the stern Of the
pinnace became red.
looked OF the captain, who swore softly
to himself and hurried forward. The crew
of the pinnace seemed stupefied. For a
quarter of an hour they rested on their oars,
gazing into the water. but the body of their
comrade rose no more. and with an excited
jabbering of patois in a high key they rowed