The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-12-01
BIGGEST OF ALL SHARKS.
Responsible for Many Casualties OF the
Indian Ocean.

| porter of the philadelphia Times" |
| spent nearly Il year on the Island OF Maui
! ritius. making Il study of the natural pro.
! ducts OF the country for II commercial
| firm in London, and, incidentally, of the
| animals 70" Il society of which ] was II
| member. Among other things / invest-
| gated was the fishing, and l soon learned
| that there was an extraordinary sword
fish, known as the sailfish, on the coast,
which was supposed to be very danger
Gus, and when attacked often turned on
the beat and destroyed it.
| As one of the risks OF the country |
| locked into it and found that there were
| at least two or three accidents yearly in
| which no one returned To tell the story
| But ! soon made up my mind that the
swordfish had nothing TO do with it, Il
| fact which proved in II singular and un-
expected way | hired II boat, or II ri
rogue, one day with half a dozen men, to
| 90 on hunt for II sailfish. l discarded
| their crude methods and took II regular
| hnrpoon, with Il good stout rope tor tow
| ing and key to throw over, after the
| fashion of the New England fishermen
Once in the oifing, beyond the reef that
was u garden III its beauty of coral
growth, one of the men pointed away on
the horizon where he said he was II sail
fish. The boat was turned i'll the direc.
ton indicated and soon l observed what
appeared to be II beautiful sail. The
! nearer we approached the more charming
it became in its coloring; rich yellow,
| green's and puppies combined to make it
Il magnificent spectacle, and | could
think ouly OF II mimic and diminutive
galley of Cleopatra, where all the sails
were i'll coloring.
The fin was So tall and large that from
Il little distance it seemed exactly like the
small sail of Il vessel, and Quivered and
scintillated as the fish moved along. The
fish paid little attention to the boat so
that-t was an easy matter to run along
side. y few minutes later we had tue
harpoou in it, and il was towing the buoy
away over the water, exactly as does the
American swordGsh. It, was intimately
captured in the same manner.
then set the sail and we went four or
five miles out to sea to Il certa in reef, to
try the fishing. While there the men
suddenly became very much excited at the
sight of the fin OF large fish coming near
the boat. Some of them wanted me to
strike IL, others were voci;crous in tEcir
demand that we should pull for the shore,
but in my sublime confidence. the result
of perfect ignorance | ordered the anchor
pulled up and we rowcd toward the fish.
II permitted us to run alongside, as a
whale woodland when almost over it the
harpOon was thrown.
have somewhat extended experience
with large fishes and have even been be-
hind Il seventy foot whale, but the result
of this strike surprised me. Immediately
AN enormous tail and body rose into the
air. by II miracle missing the boat, the tail
coming down with such force that had it
struck the light craft it would have bro
ken il into sDintcrs
The same moment the animal sounded
with such impetuoslty that the bow of
the boat was jerked under the water, and
when the rope broke, us it fortunately
did, we fioated half full of water which
was with difficulty bailed out. One old
native in the crew said that we had II for
Uunate escape, as had the line held we
should have been hauled beneath the sur
face us it fouled. Such result was very
apparent, and | saw at once the cause of
the mysterious losses.
This fish was so powerful that with
comparative ease it could drag Il large
boat beneath the surface in case the line
foued and were strong enough. Several
of the natives told me of incidents illus
trating the remarkable power of the fish,
and some of them had been in boats or
canoes that had been ,rked beneath the
surface and had made their escape by the
breaking Of the rope.
The fish was undoubtedly the largest
shark in the world, Il spotted. murbled
monster that weighed almost as much rs
Il large whale and attained length of
seventy feet. 1t was n singular creature,
with mouth not placed beneath the head: :
as in the man.eater. and with enormous
gill openings. It's teeth were small and
it had series of whalcbone-like fingers in
fhpnl pullin(p ~ mind TIM hOnn Oh Of
American waters.
This shark, rhnodon typicus, as it is
called by science, is well known at the
Seychelles Islands, where the pirogIies of
the native are often destroyed by it 1t
is often mistaken for whale and har-
pooned, when it's lightning.like rushes
either carry the boats beneath the surface
or destroy them. Very few specimens of
this fish have been examined by white
men. There is one specimen in the Col
ombo Museum which is twenty three feet
in length and which was taken in il net
by some Cingalese
DIR. Wright of the Dublin University,
observed one of these sharks that was
fifty feet in length, and had the assurance
of competent witnesses that they had
been taken seventy or eighty feet in
length. one hundred years ago there
were giant sharks near Cape Cod. where
monster almost rs large as the rhinodon
was followed with such persistency that
the rest almost entirely disappeared. only
one now anl then being taken.
The largest on record was seventy feet
in length, and was taken bv the schooner
Virgin. When hauled alongside it was
seen - hc longer than the schooner that
was OF GS tons burden The Virgin har
poonrd another, which was apparently
1