The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1909-09-10
SHARK FISHING.

AS Dlue1Sn IO1lOW mOSSDuQkerS, SO
do the sharks trail along in their
wake. On entering Great South Bay
the sharks are scattered by porpoises
of which they have wholesome
fear-and spread over the shallow
| waters, where they are content to live
on small fish. The porpoise sticks to
the deep channels, where his char
acteristic up-and-down antics will not
be "queered" by humping his nose
on the bottom. I think the porpoises
have a great deal to do with keeping
the bluefish restless and moving. Ger
poises approach, and angling ends
until after they have departed.
Shark fishing is great sport, and
one need not seek very far from the
channels in Great South Bay to get
into the thick of it. A stout hook
attached to foot of chain with quar-
ter-inch links is essential at the end
of the line.
Once hooked, a shark must be
played like any other fish, but can be
landed in shorter time than striped
bass or tuna. He soon tires himself
with fierce spurts and mad leaps out
of the water. But the work is not
ended when he has turned on his
back and lies gasping, for he must be
gated and killed.
The expert knows the exact spot
for the knife thrust, in the throat
just back of the gills. Those who are
not experts will occasionally have
trouble. A net fisherman, in his
small boat, will go among the hoisted
nets and kill numbers of sharks read
ily-but you and are not net fish,
ermen. Much as I love the excite
ment of playing shark with rod and
reel, even more do I dread the knit
ing process.
While you will have an experienced
hoatman to attend to such trifes, I
am generally alone in rowboat or
skiff, and must manage all the details
without assistance. I once spent
day with a net fisherman taking les
sons in shark fishing. AS is gener-
ally known pound netisset on poles,
and, when filled with fish, is raised
until the fish are just below the sur
face, when they are removed with
hand nets. If there are sharks among
them the knife must be used, and the
adeptness of fishermen at this dan
gerous work is something marvel
Gus to the novice.-W. H. Ballou, in
Field and Stream.
CAPTAIN HIS OWN DETECTIVE.
A Dutch shipmaster, Captain Won
Emmerik, of the royal Dutch packet
steamer Van Spilbergen, outdid Sher-
lock Holmes on a recent voyage, ac-
cording to advices from Sydney. On
the way from Batavia to Sydney one
of the passengers, Mrs. Winfield, was
stabbed in the throat in her cabin by
in to rob her when the steamer was
seven days out from Batavia.
The woman was not seriously in
jured, the knife having missed the
iugular vein, and she followed the
Malays, shouting for help as she ran
from her cabin. The stewardess hur-
ried to her assistance but the Ma
lays escaped. When Mrs. Winfield
reported the matter to the captain
all that she could say regarding the
identity of the assailants was that
lone of them wore blue pants
and nearly all the Malays on board
wore blue breeches.
But Captain Won Emmerik was
equal to the occasion. He had the
whole crew mustered at once on the
deck in rows, and as they stood there
in the midnight gloom the captain
passed along the ranks and felt each
mans pulse and placed his hand over
each mans heart. The blood coursed
normally through the veins of all but
one. That ones heart was humping
wildly and the captain had him
placed in irons.
Another mans hands were very
cold, having just been washed, and
he was also arrested. The two were
placed in separate rooms and finally
confessed to the robbery and attack.
Both were satisfied that the cap
tain was allied with the devil. Both
were turned over to the Dutch police
il the Aru group for trial.