Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1893-03-10

pooner sent the grains into the back
Of huge fellow, but it did not remain
in long, sudden plunge forward of
the captive having torn it out and
large piece of flesh with it. The lilly
iron was tried on the head of another,
and buried so deeply that it retained it's
hold during the time that the creature
towed us up and down a watery cul-
de-sac, which was at least two miles
long. On becoming weary it sunk to
the bottom, and remained there despite
all our Juggling on the line and punch
ing it with poles until it had good
rest, then rose suddenly to the surface.
and striking the boat a heavy blow
with its wing, careened it sufficiently
almost to fill it with water. We pre-
vented Il complete capsiZe by throwing
ourselves on the port gunwale and
sending half a dozen revolver bullets
into the head of our asslilant before it
collected its wits sufficiently to move
out of range. The blood spurted out of
its head in strong jets and dyed the
water red for 4 distance of several
yards all round us. After bailing out
the boat we towed the dead monster
to our Sloop. but we had no tackle
strong enough to hoist it aboard, and,
rs we could not lift it in by main
strength, we We're compelled to let it
go, after cutting off its paddle-like
feelers and the tail AS soon as it
drifted away it was assailed by a large
shoal Of sharks. which rent it into
shreds in a few minutes.
We notice in this instance what, l
fancy, is rather a rare sight in Florida,
and that is the different species of
sharks running together and participant
ing in feast without fighting among
themselves. Our captain reported see
ing the common brown, the nurses
the hammerhead, the shovelnose, and
the blue shark in the same shoal, but
from another in that large body Of
ferocious brutes, for they darted hither
and thither, rose and sunk with magical
rapidity, or chased one another in quest
of food. The big fellows seemed to
have a monopoly of the feast, but as
they moved away after securing Il
mouthful their weaker kindred had an
at the intervals.
The first shoal seemed to disappear
suddenly while the feast was at its
best, and the captain. in reply to our
inquiries as to the cause, informed us
that they fled before the approach of
leopard and tiger sharks, which had
smelt the blood at distance and were
running it's trail much as blOodhOundS
would that Of wild deer. He also
added that these two specimens were
the most dangerous in the ocean, being
from twenty to thirty feet in length
and having teeth strong and sharp
enough to bite a piece out Of a butch
er's knife. They were rarely known to
attack man, however, owing to the
abundance of fish and other food easily
obtained We watched the assault on
the carcass until it vanished, being
fairly fascinated by the sight of so
many huge fins cleaving the water in
every direction.
Feeling that it would be waste of
time to remain in that place while the
soraliae were so abundant we hoisted
sale and shaped our course for the
open waters of the Gulf Of Mexico
We reached it just as a furious storm
of wind and rain arose, but by taking
a double reef in our sail we were able
to weather it without any inconveni
ence. When passing a sandbar having
deep channel on one side we met 4
shoal Of sea-devils playing, and har
pooned one from the deck of the vessel
The moment it was struck it darted
shoreward, but as we did not want tc
go in that direction, and it was towing
our craft at a speed that would sooI
place us on q bar, we were forced tt
cut our line and let the diabolical Great
ure run off with about 300 feet of it