The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1911-05-10
Ri OF PACIFIC WATERS
:, EATING SHARKS ARE MON
orERS TO BE DREADED.
They Are Treated When Cap
I'D bv Hawaiian Islanders. A
D;ver's Thrilling Experience.

ID Inv Hawaiian Islanders. A
Diver's Thrilling Experience.
cor many years the question as to
thor sharks will attack living
nan beings when in the water has
= holly debated by sportsmen,
.ntists and laymen in general.
ideally none of the dissenters
IN the tropics. Put the question
an inhabitant of a tropical coun-
who lives on the seashore and he
n unhesitatingly reply in the af-
native.
The average resident of Panama
,rld consider the question a foolish
The bay on the Pacific side
,ounds in sharks, and none of the
,tives will ever take swim in it's
.en waters. Some foreigners used
do so until some years ago when
Il of the engineers working on the
pnal during the French regime, a
mng Colombian named Jules Pat
srsOn, was killed by a shark. When
h body was recovered it had been
sImost entirely stripped of flesh.
4 This incident led to a war of re-
krisal on the sharks. Many of the
satiyes are content with simply
ktching and killing them, but the
8TOrite method is called cruelty
NJ" The shark is hooked and
#awn on deck, care being taken to
Ape that he Goes not use his terrible
beth. He is laid down on boards
nd his fins securely nailed thereto in
ch way that he cannot use them.
eBe tail is then cut close off, and
.be unfortunate animal thrown over
GARD. He cannot swim and he can
lot steer himself. He is helpless,
Ind the other members of his own
|amily promptly attack and devour
im
Man-eaters abound in the waters
round the Hawaiian Islands, and
tcCasionally one gets inside the coral
Eeefs which surround the islands
bout a mile from the shore line.
b 1904 a monstrous man-eater,
heasuring % feet in length, was
sught near Honolulu by one of the
Dspanese fishermen. Upon opening
|he stomach the body of a man with
be exception of one leg was found.
The next day a native woman by
beans of certain scars identified the
body as that of her husband. He
lad mysteriously disappeared a day
i two before while bathing inside
be reef off Diamond Head. Some
ucks,. tin cans and two blocks of
rood were also found in the stomach
| the animal.
Another man-eater caught a few
avs later was IA feet long and II
bet in circumference at the widest
art. The mouth measured %
lches from top to bottom and %
lChes across, and the jaw when
RED could be slipped over the head
man weighing $50 pounds and
rOpped to his feet without touch
John T. Clark, a we'll known
winner, in 1882 had a narrow es-
pc from serving as meal for two
lngry sharks while giving an exhi-
ton at Pensacola, Fla. He had
reed to be sewn up in big sack,
avily weighted with sand, and be
rOwn into the bay near the navy
I'd, from which bag he was to es-
pc by cutting his way out with a
life and swim ashore.
At the appointed time tlatbOat
ok him out some distance from the
ore and after being tied up in the
ok he was thrown overheard. He
d hardly got more than thirty feet
low the surface when something
mped against the sack and almost
SANITY the idea flashed through his
ind that it was a shark. Before
could do anything there was a
mp from the other side of the bag.
a moment or two he had cut his
ny out and was rising to the sur
ce, still clutching the knife in his
md. Once something cold grazed
S leg as he was rising.
On reaching the surface he was
eeted with cheers, but noted with
Smay that there were no boats
.ar He started to swim to the
arrest one when the water parted a
W feet to one side and he could
axe out the long black fin of a
ark. The monster headed at once
r him, and as he was about to
We to escape its clutch another
ark rushed in.
As the first shark turned over on
S side in order to bite Clarke dived
'low the surface, then up under the
ark and drove his knife time after
NE into it's vitals, and it sank to the
)ttom. AS he came to the surface
lSping for breath a yawlboat mann
by excited sailors from the navy
nd ran alongside and he was pulled
BOARD just in time to escape the
cond shark.