Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-08-01

same fate awaited every other one wound
| ed, and such was the rushing and swirling
| that our decks were wet with the spray
| thrown on board. 1t was two hours before
| the school got enough of it, and in that
| time believe we caused the death of more
thru half a hundred. Those who had not
been wounded ate their fill and left dozen
half eaten bodies floating about us. Joseph
went about rubbing his hands in a pleased
way, and saw him smile for the first time
since the accident of months before
When turned out on the second morn
ing the sea was like glass and not shark
fin in sight. Before breakfast had been
dispatched there We're at least a hundred
around us. The furnace for heating bricks
was lighted, and about o'clock we We're
| ready to give the crowd a surprise. 1t may
seem a cruel piece of business to some, and
they had best skip the next few lines
Joseph had purchased a great lot of native
grass cloth at the Cape. 1t was now cut
into pieces about two feet square and put
to soak. About fifty bricks were placed
to heat, and when as hot as fire could
make them they We're lifted out with
tongs, the wet cloth wrapped around them
and secured with a turn of small stuff,
and the food was tossed over the rail.
In as many seven or eight instances
saw the brick caught before it touched the
water. In other cases five or six fish
rushed for it at once. 4 dozen bricks had
been gulped down before we witnessed
any results, and then they were startling
The first had been swallowed by shark
about twelve feet long. He suddenly
jumped almost his full length out of
water, and then went dashing about in
the most frantic manner. In a minute or
two he had plenty of company, and the
ocean around us was set boiling by the
movements of the school Some ran out
to sea, some upon the reef, and others
l. 4.
! center and finally turned belly up and
died. Those who failed to get of the
bricks finally became alarmed and disap-
peared, nor did we see another fin until 4
O'Clock in the afternoon. Then as | hap
pened to glance over the port quarter,
saw a hammerhead about two feet below
the surface While this species is not
more voracious than either the white OF
the blue shark, he is the most repulsive
fish of the sea. No old sailor can look at
him even from the deck of ship without
a shudder. When | had reported the
presence of this monster it was determined
to capture him and have him on deck. a
hook got out and baited, the section
of bulwarks removed and the bait flung
over He seized it on the instant, and a
sharp pull at the rope fastened the hook
in his NAV. The strength of the fellow
was amazing and it was nearly an hour
before we had him on deck. After lie had
been killed his stomach was examined,
and among other articles discovered was
an old pistol. which perhaps the French
captain had tossed overheard. The length
of the shark was 10 feet = inches His
jaws had a spread of three feet and more
and he could have bolted nail leg as
easy as a man could swallow kernel of
corn.
We remained at the Cocos for twenty
two days, and each day for the first two
weeks was a slaughter. After that our
prey began to grow scarce, and during the
! last two days we did not see a shark,
though we sailed all around the islands
Joseph kept the tally every day near as
we could come at il. and when we sailed
away for Christmas island, which was
! directly in our path to the Java coast, he
| figured up something like GOO Of the mon
sters which had yielded up their lives to
| CRAFTY his thirst for revenge. The hands
! were all sick and tired of the business
| when we finally sailed away, but the sur
| vivinG brother announced that business
| had only begun. When about 200 miles
| northeast OF the Cocos we captured the
| shark whose wide open jaws have been n
| source of interest to thousands of visitors
at the Royal Museum of Natural History
! in London. 1t was o'clock in the after
noon of the day, with the wind falling
| light, when this monster was sighted by Il
| hand aloft. He was forty feet from the
! vessel and two or three feet below the sur
| face, and was keeping company. We
| got a hook out. but for an hour or more he
did not change his position. Then his ap-
| petite suddenly sharpened up and he
| dropped into our wake, but for half an
| hour longer he refused to take the bait.
| When he did go for it and was fairly
| hooked it seemed as if his struggles would
| check our way. 1t was our largest hook,
| with new inch rope fastened to the cham,
| and the outfit strong enough for a
| yoke of oxen to pull sawlog with. When
| we finally tired him out and got him
| alongside and a whip moose over his tail,
| some of the men declared that he was
! young whale. From nose to tip he
! measured % feet inches His girth
| was exactly that of pork barrel. When
/ his jaws were pried open we rolled an
! empty -four barrel into the cavity, with
room to spare He spotted in color
! like n leopard, and English naturalists
! had declared his species extinct. The jaws
were all that we preserved of the fish, and
| they We're transferred to an English man
| of-war off the Java coast. We found in
| his stomach the remains of n sailors SOU
! wester, a smooth stone as large as mans
| fist, n horn handle to Il knife, piece of
| rope and a champagne bottle.
| At Christmas island we found sharks
about rs plentiful as at the Cocos, and we
| went at them in the same fashion. Joseph
| experimental with his poisons here for the
! first time, and the results We're most sur
! prising. Meat thoroughly impregnated
| with arsenic strychnine had not the
| least effect as we could discover. a pint
| bottle of fresh water charged with
! arsenic until the stuff would no longer dis
! solve. 1t was then lowered over the side
| by string, and all of saw big shark
| swallow it. The contents must have
emptied into his stomach, but we could
not see that he affected in the least.
| We We're at Christmas island twenty light