The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-10-22
A SHARKS BIOGRAPHY.
IN. Y. Evening Post \

1t was down on the Pages reef
where the green melts suddenly into
seas of turquoise, that the man-eater
first saw light. He was born amid scenes
of blood and sudden death: ushered
into the world amid pitiless attack. and
saved, of all the hellish brood, by the
swirl of waters, the uplifted sand
cloud, caused by savage kinsmen IN
their ruthless charge and cannibalistic
feast.
His first act was a drama in the
struggle for existence There was no
one to teach him how to swim, to
breathe, to see, and instinct, that in
heritance Of the ages, babe him lie
limp and motionless. Being of the
same color as the sandy bottom, a
lvid tawny gray, he crouched, and
was buried by the shroud of falling
particles as they sifted down through
the green and opalescent water.
He was about one foot in length.
lank, pliab1e, soft and tender He did
not have bone IN his body, indeed
never had; he was an embryo killing
machine of gristle, with just the sug
gestion Of sharp teeth around his jaws.
sand. resting easily his big pad-like
pectora1 fms and tail that fell over
upon his side; then as darkness came,
he moved restlessly, flung his tail to
one side, and was surprised to find that
he shot forward and found himself in
midwater He could move, was buoy
ant; then fear came again, and alarm
ed at his exposed position, afraid of he
= knew not what, he swung the limp
tail, shot ahead and ran blindly be-
meath the edge of wall of projecting
&fanch coral which formed a cheval
de frise to the channel. No more for
tunate position could have been select
ed; indeed, it was prophetic of the good
luck which followed the man-eater all
his life
The jagged points of the coral were
so many bayonets over his recumbent
body He had found a snug harbor,
and that it was safe was evident by
the numb ers of crayfish which occupied
a similar position along the line.
brandishing their serrated whips and
assuming an air of hostility and brav-
cry which was the merest presump-
ton.
AS night came on the young shark
shifted from side to side, working the
sand out so that he could lie with
ease, gradually forming a nest in the
soft sand the shape of his yielding
body. His eyes, which were of the ex-
act shape of his skin, but spotted with
black, now began to take in objects
near at hand. He was terrified at the
strange sights, which, as the darkness
deepened, flashed and scintillated in
every direction; now as starlike OBJ
jects, again as comets pulsatfng on
through the water with a fiery train;
and as large fishes surged by, the en-
tire mass of water blazed with such
a golden radiance that the young man.
eater fell back against the coral of his
de1. trembling and quivering with fear
All night he lay quietly, now and
again prodded by the serrated spine of
an fnquisitiye crayfish, while once
SprawIing many-armed octopus crossed
over him-a nerve-racking sensa ton
VS. this infant man-eater had nerves,
and realized it until he was six feet in
length, when they gradually became
obliterated. In time the light of day
came and he observed that the water
over him was much lower than it had
been; it had dropped away, as it were,
and then seeing that he was partly
covered by sand, he fell asleep and did
not awaken for some hours, when he i
saw that the water over him was deep |
er. that in some way it had risen.
The white sand led gradually upward |