The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1908-01-30

Or does some sad aerial spirit high
In serene air suspend the listening sky
With sweet-remembered music of
joybells
Changing for death? Hush, how it
swells and swells
Still sweet and low and sad;-as
though the peal
We're chimed in forest depths, where
never steal
Sounds from the world beyond, and
where no enise
Breaks ever the long dream. 1t is
the voice
or the mysterious bird whose bell
like note
Chimes through Austral noon as
church bells float
Der lonely slopes and pastures far
from homo.
Sometimes but once it sang, as when
On northern seas sleeps on the ebbing
tibe
And scarcely stirs the Inchapes
sounding tide
To one faint clang; then ceased: then
once again
Tolled out with silver sweetness it's
| part pain,
Part reverie over some beloved thing.
| At last it too was still, recovering
| Some dream to brood upon with
voiceless peace"
Now for "Life on the Ocean Wave"
Two others and myself were invited by
= Mr.. Bragg to go to sea with him in
his sailing craft on a fishing cruise. The
wind was cool, the sun hot, the waves
rolling. Casting anchor about six miles
out we began feeding out fishing lines
at once for blue cod. They are very
marketable fish and here about two
hundred yards of line must be paid out
in order to reach the depth they in
habit. They grab bait rapidly. es-
pecially if the fisherman begins to pull
in rapidly as they are deluded into
thinking their prize is attempting to
escape them. During our two hours a
large number Of blue cod, some soldier
fish and two Shiny octopus, or devil fish,
we're hauled in. The bag. shaped octo-
pus with it's eight long tentacles lined
with suckers with which they hold are
strong enough to grapple with men.
Deeper down in these waters are found
the barracuda, fish from six to eight
feet long. The writer's enjoyment con-
sisted in fishing and playing seasick
gymnastics, alternately. The man who
wrote "Life On the Ocean Wave" was
evidently never at sea.
Just before beginning this outing
from the Bluff, Mr.. Garmong helped a
sportsman haul in medium sized shark
la good omen to the novel experiences
that followed in the trip. Many sharks
inhabit the waters along the rough
coast of New Zealand. There are many
kinds and all sizes. When in Honolulu
Shah Oahu, Hawaiian Islands, three
years ago, we were guests of Hon. W. G.
Weeden, one of the best and most favor
ably known citizens in Honolulu; he and
other business mon were out shark fish
ish and afterwards deposed as follows:
That after an exciting pull shark was
hauled ashore with their huge line and
when opened they counted forty-three
young shark in tho stomach, the small
est one being three feet long. An in
teresting habit Of the shark is to, in the
event of danger, open it's mouth, when
the young swim into the stomach where
pouches or stalls are arranged by ma
ture for them. A similar story is told
by Capt. G. r. Sundstrum, reliable man
and we'll known resident Of Dunedin,
New Zealand. -Four years ago man
suddenly disappeared in Honolulu while
swimming beyond the reef at an unfre-
quented beach. Afterwards shark
was caught by Japanese fishermen and
when opened the stomach was found to
contain y mans foot and shoe, the lat
ter being recognized by the missing
These statements go in these places
without challenge. The chief danger
is in swimming beyond reefs out into
the deeper water. However, while we
we're in Dunedin last summer the chief
city engineer, while wading with his
boy in the beach at Timeru, saw shark
approaching. When making ready fol
their prey they always turn slowly over
on their backs and then make dart
forward with open mouths. The engi.
neer picked up his boy to place him be.
yond danger and started for the shore
when the shark tore all the flesh off one
Of his legs. The man died the next day
There are muscles back Of each of the
large number Of teeth enabling the huge
fish to turn them inward after clamp
ing into the flesh, fish hook fashion
making escape impossible.
This is wonderful whale field. From
the top OF Mt. Antlum, Stewart Islands
highest peak, the eye circumscribes the
entire bit of land and scans the oceans
broad expense. the whaling grounds
If thirty vaara 400 Vast soboolc ~