The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-10-05

run who had not taken a shot at him or attempted to capture him.
 The map-eater could not be induced to take a baited hook, and it was be- lieyed by many of the men that he followed the vessel waiting for a
 wreck; and when a certain ship disap- peared in a herricane and went down
 with all on board in the Florida Straits,
 it was said that Old Bill went down
 with her. In any event, he disap-
 peared for months. He was now IS feet long, of enormous bulk. He rare Iy went north of Hatteras and then l only in summer, when he followed the shad schools north, making the turn at Long Island in June and the coast
 of Maine some time later in summer. ] His habits had changed. He preyed upon dead animals, had become 1 scavenger, and would follow cattle 1 ship half way across the ocean to feed upon a dead steer. He appeared to be 1 too heavy to run down a horse mack 1 erel, and the smaller fishes evaded him
 altogether, though occasionally he
 found school of mackerel surrounded
 by a net and would dash into them, | crazed by the scent of blood and slime, l and gorge himself with them,
 He was utterly insensible to pain, as while entangled in a net he was
 lanced several times by an infuriated- fisherman; but the men noticed that
 he did not stop eating; paying no at
 tention to the wounds; and when his
 size was seen, the skipper ordered the
 men aboard the schooner. On an-
 other occasion, when entangled in a net near Glouster five miles off
 shore, he destroyed it, rolling over
 and over, biting the net, tearing it
 into countless pieces. A dory man at-
 tackled him with a harpoon, upon
 which he turned savagely, gripped the
 cutwater in his teeth, nearly crushing
 it and lifted the boat several feet. The
 men pulled off at a glimpse of his
 size, and the next day some of his
 teeth were found in the planking.
 One summer he came up the coast
 searching for some cattle steamer, but
 finding none, he swan on, and attract
 ed by the fishing boats, followed sev-
 eral. Food was scarce. Horse mack
 erel eluded him. One day he ate a huge
 jelly fish in desperation, and next day 1 seized and rent mass of kelp, in which a dead fish was wound, which
 brought on a frenzy for food and blood.
 A schooner was fishing nearby, and as
 the men hauled up fish, he would take them off, carrying away the lines and
 filling his mouth with hooks to which
 he paid little attention. Finally the
 fishing stopped and he came to the sur face some distance off and seeing a : dory anchored swan up to it, then circled around It. His appearance must have terrified the man for he grasped an oar and struck at the shark, shout 1 ing for help. It was said later that the s shark deliberately tried to tip over the
 boat by rising beneath it; but it is ar ) historical fact that oyer dozen mer ) and women on the schooner saw tht - man-eater rush at the dory, rise over [ amidships, saw the unfortunate mal t waving his arms, then saw him strike
 at the shark with the oar: but tht
 man-eater fell partly on the dory ! crushing it down, and then both dis
 appeared. This incident occurred of
 Nahant, and for several summers, tn
 shark haunted the New England coas o and the Gulf of Maine. He repeatedl!
 attempted to capsize boats off Bool 4 Island, and terr0rfzed the dory cod fish z ermen and others by rising beneatl :, them and swimming about their boats U ' The Big Shark under which alias h Il was known, is still remembered by tn 9 old fishermen of the coast. The man-eater had at one time bee ,+ quick of motion, a swift hunter. H e had learned the tricks and customs 0 i, the fishes, He knew when the blue O fish hordes, the millions of shad cam 2 in from the deep submerged subma o rine plateau upon which they win Y tered, and with others he had folllowe 2 them, lurking about the mouths Q ' rivers, often creeping in, devourin s other sharks or eating the hundreds c
 shad in nets.
 4 This and more the great shark haj !. done, but now his enormous bluk, hi d slow movements suggested a differ h ent life; the huge creature had reach ,e ed the demonical climax of his devel Ia rows of white serrated knife-lil A teeth; he moved with great delibera h tion, and was apparently incapable 0 10 rapid movement, but this was not alto f gether true, the shark was really ,r type of activity. He could dart ahea yc or from side to side, or turn upon hi ,e side with matchless grace, but he rare i'd !. ly did; he now ploughed slowly alon IS searching for the objects which sug ,e gested the game of his choice.
 o If was this change of habit tha h made the great white man-eater a Iy ocean wanderer. He avoided the shor le and attached himself to a large shi ne which sailed from Boston to Liver re pool, trailed it. like hound on. tn ,e scent, for days, laid by it in storm