The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-06-29
~--7----7--7--7-------- ------77-----'7--- SAILORS AND SHARKS.
Man-Eaters Easily Frightened Away
 by Noise.


 Man-Eaters Easily Frightened Away
 by Noise.
 1.-Two facts that may seem somewhat peculiar to shore folks" said an ex- sailor of the Navy, "are, first, that only about one-half of the memo wars men in our service or in any other service, in fact, know how to swim, and, sec ond, that sharks are the most coward ly of all living creatures. It is odd that so large proportion of the naval sail ors don't know how to swim, but it is probably due to the fact that great number of our memo wars men now adays come from the interior of the country, where there is no water for them to learn how to swim. In the old Navy-and I put in all my service in the old Navy, so called-the man who couldn't swim was. as soon as the fact was discovered by his shipmates, in- confidently chucked over the side when swimming call went, and he just had to swim. Of course, the men wouldn't let fellow who didn't know how to swim drown before their eyes, but they would see to 1t that he made a hard stab at the art of swimming be- fore they picked him up. If he didn't succeed in swimming the first time, overheard he would go the very next time all hands took plunge over the side at swimming call, and thus all of the men serving on the old line of packets became swimmers before they left the service. It is forbidden to throw a non-swimmer into the water now, but I think it would be good thing if the practice were still contin- ued. The officers of the ships to-day insist upon the apprentice lads learning to swim, but they let the non-swim- mers among the newly recruited lands men go along without learning. There have been numerous drowning incl dents in our Navy within recent years, owing to the inability of men who were otherwise excellent sailors in the easy art of swimming.
 As to the cowardliness of sharks, that fact is well known among men who have been much to sea in southern waters infested by man-eaters. The fiercest man eater that ever pulled a poor little pilot fish into acting as a food scout for him will get out of the seaway in a mighty big hurry if a swimmer, noticing the sharks ap- poach, sets up noisy splashing. A shark Is in deadly fear of any sort of living thing that splashes in the water. Down among the South Sea Islands the natives never go in a-bathing alone, but always In parties of half a dozen or so, in order that they make the greatest hubbub in the water and thus scare the sharks away. Once in a while a too-venturesome swimmer among these natives foolishly detaches himself from his swimming party and momentarily forgets to keep up his splashing. Then there is a sudden swish, and the man-eater comes up beneath him like a flash and gobbles him. know naval officer who, down in the harbor of Acapulco, Mexico, one afternoon few years ago stepped on g. sleeping man-eater in shallow water while in bathing. The officer gave him. self up for lost but he made a frantic effort to wade in to the beach. He expected every minute to have both of his legs looped off by the sharks teeth In wading in he, of course, made a lot of disturbance in the water, and this is what saved him. When, to own sur prise, he finally stepped up on the beach and looked back for his shark his saw the man-eater's fin cleavine the blue waters of the bay hundreds of feet away, bound outward" Wash ing ton Star.