The Kemper herald. (Scooba, Miss.) 1875-1908, 1906-05-03
SHARK HUNTING.
Rather UnfeeIing Methods Of Horweg-
ianS-

ians.
This strictly commercial business of
shark hunting is done in small sloops,
whose headquarters are in the 0
%northerly Norwegian ports. The crews
are for the most part made up of pure
blooded descendants of the Vikings,
who are still to be found in any num-
Der among the codfishers of Hammer
Test and Tromso. And a magnificent
race of men they are! Accustomed
from boyhood to a life of hardship,
they have a way of treating Father
Neptune with a slightly contemptuous
liberation, like an old friend of some
what uncertain temper, whose rapid
changes from smiling ~benevolence to
Eild, clustering anger are on the whole
rather amusing than otherwise. :.
They care nothing for danger and lit
lie for suffering-in themselves or in
others. Why, then, should they stop
to think that perhaps a MANNED but
still living shark can feel?
The fishing is done off the coast of
Iceland in about eighty fathoms of
water. Three or four gallowslike struc-
lures are rugged up around the sides
Of the sloop, and from each of these
hangs a pulley-block, over which runs
4 strong rope; and to the end of this
the baited hook is thrown out to at
tract the quarry, and such is the eager
ness with which the sharks take the
bait that sometimes each of these gal
lowslike fishing rods will have its fish
hooked and fighting for life all at the
same time.
There is no playing the fish; it is
not necessary or possible, and the pow
erful tackle is hardly likely to break,
no matter how f~iercely the hooked
shark may struggle. But the shark is
not, for his size a game fish; and, ex-
cept when he is actually being hoist
ed up out of the water, there is no very
serious strain on the tackle. If he does
now and hen get away it is not be-
cause, he ever manages to break the
line, but because the lightly fixed hook
easily tears through the soft cartilag-
nous skeleton of his head and 80 sets
him free.
AS soon as a shark has taken n OF
the bats tine hauling tackle attached
to his particular gallows is manned and
without any superfuous fuss or cere-
mony he is hauled up to the sloop and
hoisted just clear of the water.
He is not brought on board at all,
but with a few bold slashes his liver
is cut out as he hangs and is thrown
into a tub, to be further dealt with
later. Then his eyes are put out and
he is cut adrift-to go and complete
the tardy process of dying where and
how he pleases.
All this sounds very horrible, but
there is one curious fact which goes
far to make us believe that this death
cannot after all, be such a cruel one
as at first appears. 1t is this, the fish
ermen say, that unless they put out the
sharks eyes he will afterward cause
them a lot of trouble by coming and
taking the bait a second time.
1t sounds incredible, but the state
nent is thoroughly well authenticated
by eye witnesses, who have see a liver
less shark do just this very thing.
Scientists, doubtless, are right inssay-
ing that the shark (Which by anatomi-
cal classification is one of the lowest
of the fishes does not feel pain in the
way more highly organized animals feel
it. We will cling to that belief, for
it is %consoling to us, If not to the
shark, who is thus sacrificed that his
liver may supply us with-what?
1t is a secret not to be spoken aloud.
Norway is one of the great centres of
the cod trade, and from cod is made
cod liver oil, and-shark's-liver oil
tastes and looks exactly like it.-Pear-
Magazine.