Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1916-08-03

permits spears and knives to he thrust
into it without seemingly to take any no.
tice
zone of the most prodigious and per.
haps the most formidable of sharks Is
the man-eater' (Carcharodon carcha-
rias) 1t roams through all temperate
and tropical seas and everywhere is an
object of dread. Its maximum length Is
20 feet and its teeth are three inches
long. While there are few authentic in
stances of sharks attacking human be-
ings pror to the recent tragdcs) there
have undoubtedly been many cases whers
sharks simply swallowed people who
had fallen overheard, just as they would
swallow any other food. How easy it
would he for man-eater to devour It
person whole may be JUDGED from the
finding of an entire hundred pound sea
lion in the stomach of "A 3o-feet shark
on the California coast. A certain man
eater SG IL feet long had jaws 20 inches
wide, inside measure, and teeth 2la
inches long. This may have been the
great FISH of scripture narrative,
and it is possible that N that time much
larger man-eaters existed than are now
known, as shark teeth with cutting
edges five inches long have been found
on the sea-bottom, and these are belev-
ed by naturalists to have belonged TO
sharks not long dead. The phosphate
beds Of South Carolina yield very large
fossil teeth OF a shark which was related
to the man-eater of the present day; judy
ing from the comparative size of these
teeth. Professor Goode thought that
sharks 20 or so feet long must have
been common.
Many years ago n Norwegian bishop
in a learned paper brought to the at
tention of the scientific and theological
worlds shark which he attempted to
prove must have been the great fish
that swallowed Jonah This was the
hasking shark CCetorhlnus maXimus)
known also as the elephant or bone
shark which is an inhabitant of tho
polar seas, but occasionally strays Is
far south MS Virginia and California,
and in former years was not rare in the
United States and British coasts. The
species has the habit at times of col
lectinC in schools Mt the surface and
basking in the sun with its back partly
out of water. It reaches II maximum
length of 30 feet ana is exceeded i'm size
by only three or four animals eXtant.
Provided with small teeth, it feeds on
fishes and floating crustaceans, and is
not of ferocious disposition. 1t is
dangerous only 10y virtue Of it's great
bulk and when attacked its powerful tail
easily demolshes boats. In former years
the bashing shark was hunted for It's oil
on the coast of Norway and Ireland; it
,ly ho, bo CHI ,t
Massachusetts in the early part of the
last century. and as many as u bar
rcls of oil were sometimes obtained from
the liver of one shark. There are many
records Of basking sharks % to IS feet
long from the coast of New York, Mas
sachusetts and Maine but the species
has not been common in our waters in
recent years.
"rhe largest of all fishes, the largest
of all cold-blooded animals and the larg-
est of all existing aniIrnis. with the
exception of few species of whales, is
the whale shark (Rhineodon typicus).
originally described from Good Hope
but now known from India, Japan,
South America Panama, California, and
various other places, n small specimen
having been obtained on the Florida
coast n few years ago. This shark has
"A very broad and obtuse snOut and an
exceedingly wide mouth armed with
numerous minute teeth; the dark-coor-
ed body is marked with many small
Whtish spots. The species is stated to
attain a length of 20 feet and is known
to exceed ~ feet. Notwithstanding its
| immense size, however, it is harmless
to man unless attacked, and feeds on
the small creatures for which it's teeth
. are adapted. Its huge bulk makes 1t
dangerous in the same way that a whale
is dangerous. Years ago its was re-
ported that the sperm Whale fishermen
at the island of Saint Denis, in the In
dian Ocean, dreaded to harpoon n whale
shark by mistake and stories are told
of a harpooned fish. having by a light.
ning-like dive exhausted the supply of
rope which had been accidentally fasten-
to the boat, dived deeper still, and so
pulled a pirogue and crew to the bot
tom -