The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-12-30
SHARK GENERALLY
misunderstood

but it is difficult to study their ways
from the deck of a ship as they move
slowly in a retroactive medium such as
water some 20 or 80 feet below the
observer. Hence the many erroneous
deductions of seamen with respect to
these unsociable denizens of the deep.
The shark belongs to a type that has
survived the fight of time, while other
more attractive species have ceased to
exist. The early voyagers were wont
to attribute supernatural prescience to
the shark. Often during light winds
one of these sea scavengers will fol
low slow sailing ship for several sue
cessive days and nights, and it was err
|roneously assumed that he does so be-
cause aware in some mysterious way
of an impending death on board
which, says a writer in Chambers
Journal, will insure for him a sumptu-
Gus repast
Many shark is preceded by few
shimmering companions known as pi-
lot fish, because they are supposed "
warn the shark of danger ahead, but
they never prevent this hostis hu.
manis 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 the
compulsion of hunger, the fact re-
mains that any one who happens to
fall overheard in the vicinity of i
latter without ceremony. 1t is the
evil reputation attaching to the 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 a rela-
tive that is either dead or moribund.
Old sailors never weary of charging
upon the voracity and the digestion of
sharks When in the China seas, as
related by the late Capt Basil Hall,
r. ~, large shark was caught by H.
/ NJ s. Alceste which was found to con
tain, among other things, a buffalo
hide that had been thrown overheard
the preceding day. One of the sailors
explained in a way which seemed IRE.
sistibly logical in the opinion of his
shipmates: 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
amateur makers of history, was still
on board the Alceste.
The following canards are as reli
able as many statements made by un
trained seafaring observers with re-
spect to the flora and the fauna of old
ocean. 1t is said that a man who
CHANGED to fall overheard with a stoo
and a bag of lemons wis subsequently
found in the stomach of a shark seated
on the stool and Offering lemons fol-
sale. Strange sounds being heart
proceeded from a captured shark, he
was opened without delay, and there
were thus disclosed man grinding a,
AK on stone turned by a boy pre-
; .partory to hewing their way out o
their living tomb. The man had beer
committed to the deep while in a stat,
of suspended animation, sewed up in
canvas shroud with the grindstone al
sinker. His son leaped after hin
and both were swallowed by waiting
shark. There is a venerable stor,
afloat of a shark that swallowed il
one gulp man in armor
% There are not wanting writer's VIII
would have us believe that men los
their lives owing to panic when in tn
presence of a shark in his native ele
, ment, but probably. the result is equa
lily against the man did he have all hi
1 wits about him. Nevertheless, circum
stantial accounts are in evidence O
instances where the shark has bee
= defeated by the man. At jamaica, TO
= example, huge shark is said to hay
been terror to frequenters of tn
harbor he affected. Once he over
turned a boat carrying provisions I
the shipping, and devoured the wifi
' of the boatman. The maddened wiz
over reached the nearest ship, seize
a sharp knife, invoked the aid of hi
patron saint, leaped into the water
gave battle to the shark despite tn
;, awful odds and succeeded in ayengin
his wife by Staying her destroyer.
:. At Barbados, similarly, if we ma
:. accept the report as authentic, a sea
a man fought with and killed a shar
that had eaten shipmate. Youn
: Maoris, male and female, were ono
proficient in the Staying of sharks
! open water. They would swim int
a the surf, armed with a knife, dive III