The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-12-30

SOUTH SEA SHARK FISHING.


ueludlu LOT IL among the WSll-LO-uO
Chinese, both at home and wherever
they be throughout the world, that
every Year, down among the equatorial
atoils of the Pacific, thousands Of the
men risk and lose their lives in hunting
the tiger of the sea-"
Every little while the Australian pa
pers briefly note the arrival of some is
land trading vessel with cargo Of so
many tons of shark fins. These, dried
and strung together, have been picked
up among a hundred nameless tropic
islands that dot the South Pacific, and
are consigned from Melbourne or Sid
ney to the great ports of China.
1t is especially among the islands
where nature has been less lavish in
her supply of food for people that shark
fishing has become the great, the only
industry The sun baked denizens Of
the Gilbert and Marshall groups and
the countless coral islets of the western
Carolines have need to expire
ocean day and night in order to live;
for there such delicacies as the mealy
yam and the toothsome baked bread
fruit and the sucking pig are unknown
There is nothing to eat on such islands
as these but cocoanut and fish, with
occasionally some such vegetable as
the puraka, a coarse grained plant
which grows as thick as an elephant S
leg.
But any time, day or night, the sea
swarms there, like other waters of the
earth, with sharks After the swift
tropic sunset has plunged the world in
| darkness one may go out in canoe
| anywhere in one of the lagoons, and,
! lighting torch of dried cocoanut leav-
| es, look downward over the boats side
and see come hurrying up literally hun
dreds of sharks, ALL judging from their
actions, desperately hungry.
| 1t is at dawn, however, that the
shark fishers prefer to begin their work.
They are naked save for a girdle of
grass about their 1oins and the canoes
in which they ply their dangerous trade
are mere shells of small strips of wood
sewn together with cocoanut oinnet.
| Not one of the pieces is more than two
| feet in length. and they are pieced to-
| gether with marvellous skill and patien-
| ce, for wood is a scarce commodity in
| these islands. Twenty canoes generally
| go out at the same time, but they do
not venture far, for few feet from the
| shore the water Is fifty and in some
| places ninety fathoms deep.
| If a jaded sportsman wants excite
ment, he should go shark fishing in
| these lonesome waters. The tackle is
| of the rudest sort-a huge wooden hook
cunningly trained when it was a young
tree root to grow into the proper shape.
| Attached to 1t is a strong cocoanut-fiber
rope about 24O feet in length A piece OF
| flying fish or shark caught the previous
day is deftly tied about the hook, and
it sinks heavily into the water. A NOM
ent later and the line tautens-the
shark is there. The steersman strikes
his paddle into the water to bring the
canoes head round, the man holding
the line gives it a sudden jerk that
nearly upsets the little craft and a third
native handles a short iron-wood club
expectantly.
Then comes the playing of the des-
perate game which is death for'the men
to lose. Sometimes the shark makes q
desperate effort to get away into the
blue gloom a hundred fathoms down
and foot by foot, with anxious faces
the men watch the coled line spin out
A sudden jerk may ofttimes change the
sharks course before it is too late
and bring him to the surface, and then
he is hauled close to the boat before he
has q chance for another dive. If all
goes we'll the club man seizes his chan
ce and gives the huge fish a. stunning
blow on the head, If the sharks tai
comes within reach of the steersman's
arm, he stands ready with a heavy
backed, keen knife to send a slashing
blow which shall put that end of the
monster out of the game Sometimes
a young fish will have his tail shipped
off in this way befor. re knows he has
lost it..
While this is going on with one canoe
the others are probably similarity en-
gagged, and it Is here that most lives are
lost, for with a score of boats, each be-
| ing dragged about by angry sharks
there are sure to be plenty of tangled
lines and collisions and capsizes. Once
in the water, man has no time for the
briefest of prayers to his savage gods
for in a second dozen sharp fins come
| kissing toward him, there is a swapping
of giant jaws and of the fisherman the
only trace is mass of bloody foam.
But if all goes we'll the shark is killed
and towed ashore and despoiled of his
fins and hide. The skins alone are sole
to the white man for civilized use These
| are bought almost entirely by German
| traders. 1t is said that some method
| of tanning this most intractable oil
hides has been discovered in Germany
but the shark merchants of the Pacific
treat this with the same ineredulity a!
they do the rumor that the emperor
of Germany has discovered how t.
| crossIbreed sharks so a toothless anC
amiable variety will replace the pres
| ent breed.
The TRADERS pays for sharks fins ii
tobacco, calico, guns, ammunition ant
sometimes in gin. All the Gilber
| Islanders are expert shark fisherman
i but the natives of Panopa Ocean Is
land) are at the head of that profession
This is but tiny spot, fifty mile!
south of the Equator and 300 west o
the Gilberts. which rises abuptly 30
I feet above the sea. The natives are {
| fierce and turbulent race of Malaga
Polvnesians. Not so very long ag,
| they were, like the sharks they caught
eaters of men, and ii is said that ever
now they win make away with white
trader if he ventures among them fol
] barter unguarded.-New York sun.