Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-11-03
a3listellaneous Grading.
SHARKS coWARDLY AND CRUEL
Men Have Whipped the Monsters in
Their Own Element.

Sharks are both cowardly and cruel
but it is difficult to study their ways
from the deck of a ship, as they
move slowly in a refractive medium
such as water some 20 or 80 feet be-
low the observer. Hence the erro-
neous deductions of seamen with re-
spect to these unsociable denizens Of
the deep. The shark belongs to
type which has survived the flight OF
time, while other more attractive
species have ceased to exist. The
early voyagers were wont to attrib-
ute supernatural prescience to the
shark. Often during light winds. one
of these sea scavengers will follow
a slow sailing ship for several sue
cessive days and nights. and 1t was
enormously assumed that he does so
because aware in some mysterious
way of an impending death on board
which will insure for him sumptu-
Gus repast.
Many a shark is preceded by few
shimmering companions known as
pilot fish because they are supposed
to warn the shark of danger ahead,
but they never prevent this hosts
humani generis from swallowing the
tempting morsel and its cunningly
concealed hook.
A sharks voracity is not less mar
velous than his digestion. Whether he
be a man-eater by choice or by COM
pulsion of hunger, the fact remains
that anyone who happens to fall
overheard in the vicinity Of shark
is likely to be snapped up by the lat.
ter without ceremony. 1t is the evil
reputation attaching to this whole
shark tribe as regards indifference
whence comes a meal that renders
them so abhorrent to seafarers. They
are by no means epicures. FAILING
other food, a shark will devour
relative that is either dead or mori-
bund.
Old sailors never weary of enlarg-
ing upon the voracity and the dlges-
ton of sharks. When in the China
seas, as related by the late Captain
Basil Hall, r. NJ, large shark was
caught by H. NJ. S. Alceste, which
was found to contain, among other
things, a buffalo hide that had been
thrown overheard the preceding day.
One Of the sailors explained this In
a way which seemed irresistibly logi-
cal in the opinion Of his ship
mates. There, my lads" said
Jack, what dye think Of that?
He swallowed the whole buffalo right
enough, but he couldn't digest the
hide" AS a matter Of fact the car
cass of the buffalo, unknown to these
80 icfn INrnC
on board the Alceste.
The following canards are as re-
liable as many statements made by
unframed seafaring observers with
respect to the flora and fauna Of old
ocean. It is said that a Jew who
chanced to fall overheard with q
stool and a bag Of lemons was sub
seQuently found in the stomach or
a shark, seated on the stool and Of
fering the lemons for sale. Strange
sounds being heard proceeding from
a captured shark, he was opened
without delay, and there were thus
disclosed a man grinding an ak on a
stone turned by a boy preparatory
to hewing a way out of their living
tomb. The man had been commit
ted to the deep while in state Of
suspended animation, sewn up in a
canvas shroud, with the grindstone
as a sinker. His son leaped after
him, and both were swallowed by a
waiting shark. There is a venerable
story af1oat of a shark that swal-
lowed in one gulp man in armor.
There are not wanting writer's
who would have us believe that men
lose their lives owing to panic when
in the presence of a shark in his ma
tive element, but probably the re-
suit is equally against the man If he
have all his wits about him. Never
theless circumstantial accounts are
in evidence of instances where the
shark has been defeated by the
man. At Jamaica, for example, a
terror to frequenters of the harbor
he affected. Once he overturned a
boat carrying provisions to the ship
ping, and devoured the wife of the
boatman. The maddened widower
reached the nearest ship, seized a
sharp knife, invoked the aid of his
patron saint, leaped into the water,
gave battle to the shark, despite the
awful odds and succeeded in avenging
his wife by Staying her destroyer.
At Barbados, similarly, if we may
accept the report as authentic, sea-
man fought with and killed shark
lndt ndu eaten Snlpmdte. 1OuHS
Maoris, male and female, were once
proficient in the Staying of sharks in
open water. They would swim into
the surf, armed with a knife. dive
under the nearest shark, rip open
their enemy and return to the shore.
During the last decade ii is said
that the sailmaker of the American
warship Alliance, then at anchor at