The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1916-08-09
WHALE SHARKS HAVE
A LENGTH OF 70 FEET
"MAN-EATER" WHICH ROAMS
THE SEAS COULD SWALLOW
GROWN HUMAN BEING.

The depredations of man-eating
sharks along the Atlantic seaboard
lend an especially timely interest to
a communication from DR.. Hugh M.
Smith, the foremost American au-
thority on fishes, addressed to the Ma
tional Geographic Society and issued
as a bulletin.
"When giant fishes are mentioned
most people will at once think of the
shark, among which indeed are found
the largest fish now existing" writes
DR.. Smith. "Of the many species
of sharks noteworthy on account Of
their size there about half a dozen
which are pre-eminent. These differ
much in their disposition, some being
as harmless as doves and others the
incarnation of ferocity.
"The sleeper shark (sommiosus
microcephalus), whose name fits it
so admirably, appears to have devel-
oped its body at the expense of it's
brain, for it is a sluggish, stupid
glutton, about six times as long as
an average man. At home in the
Arctic regions it sometimes makes
visits as far south as Cape Cod, the
British Isles and Oregon. 1t is most
often observed lying quietly on the
surface, apparently doing and easily
approached, but at times, when hun
CRY, it rouses itself and fiercely at
tacks whales, biting huge pieces out
of their sides and tails, and when
feeding on the carcass of a whale
which has been killed by hunters it
is so voracious that it permits spears
and knives to be thrust into it with
out seeming to take any notice.
Prodigious "Man-Eater."
Zone of the most prodigious and
perhaps the most formidable of
sharks is the 'man-eater' (carcharo-
don carcharias). 1t roams through
all temperate and tropical seas and
everywhere is an object of dread. Its
maximum length is 40 feet and its
teeth are three inches long. While
there are few authentic instances of
sharks attacking human beings (pri-
or to the recent tragedies) there
have undoubtedly been many cases
where sharks simply swallowed peo-
pie who had fallen overheard, just
as they would swallow any other
food. How easy it would be for a
man-eater to devour a person whole
may be judged from the finding of an
entire 100-pound sea lion in the
stomach of a 30-foot shark on the
California coast. A certain man
eater 361a feet long, had jaws 20
inches wide, inside measure, and
teeth 21a inches long. This may have
been the great fish of the scripture
narrative, and it is possible that at
that time much larger man-eaters
existed than are now known, as shark
teeth with cutting edges five inches
long have been found at the sea bot
tom, and these are believed by natur-
alists to have belonged to sharks not
long dead. The phosphate beds of
South Carolina yield very large fos-
sill teeth of shark which was relat-
ed to the man-eater of the present
day; judging from the comparative
size of these teeth. Professor Goode
thought that sharks 70 or ~ feet
long must have been common"
A Norwegian bishop in learned
paper brought to the attention of the
scientific and theological worlds a
shark which he attempted to prove
must have been the great fish" that
swallowed Jonah. This was the bask
ing shark (cetorhinus maXimus),
known also as the elephant OF bone
shark, which is an inhabitant of the
polar seas, but occasionally strays as
far south as Virginia and California,
and in former years was not rare on
the United States and British coasts.
The species has the habit at times
of collecting in schools on the sur
face and basking in the sun with its
back partly out of the water. 1t
reaches a maximum length of fifty
feet, and is exceeded in size by only
three or four animals extant. Pro
vided with small teeth it feeds on fish
and floating crustaceans, and is not
of ferocious disposition. 1t is dan
gerous only by virtue of its great