Evening star., 1941-03-17
BY RANDOLPH LEIGH.

BY RANDOLPH LEIGH.
LA PAZ, Lower California, March
6 (By MaiD This little city is now
the center of the pearl industry
However, when we got here we found
1t, with that delightful irrelevancy
which always keeps Mexico interest
ing, engrossed in something entirely
different. The pearl divers have
turned shark hunters.
This is a case in which science
has done double good. 1t has been
found that sharks liver is of high
medical value-it has a big vitamin A
content-and for the moment more
can be made hunting sharks
than at pearl diving. This is par
ticularly true because the pearl in
dustry within recent months has
been hard hit by a disease among
the pearl-making oysters, which the
natives attribute, rightly or wrongly
to poisoning by Japanese.
In any case, sharks, which have
been the terror of the bathing
beaches of all tropical regions, are
now being hunted vigorously. The
price is very high, and natives are
using everything from hooks to har-
poons and even, in ren4cte places,
dynamite to get them.
Heretofore there has been some
small profit in sharking for the
skins and commercial oil. Now,
however, there is really fancy money
to be made in it, and boats are be-
ing outfitted in the United States
and sent down here to search the
seas and bays for the fierce crea-
lures. 1t is not beyond the possible
that protective legislation will be
passed to prevent shark extermina-
tion-which would certainly be
ironical.
Natives Go for Sharks.
We had been knocking around
from port to port for weeks picking
up, in the course of things, our
share of sharks large and small
before we heard of this new fancy
price for sharks liver. We learned
about it upon dropping anchor of
the drowsy village of Loreto, where,
having many large freshly caught
fish on deck, we invited a canoefull
of visiting natives to take back
with them any fish they wanted.
I was amazed when they darted for
two sharks, which we were saving
for pictures and bait. After that
they picked out four edible fish
40 to so pounds.
Later, when I got to chatting
around at the captain of the ports
office I got the facts. I had given
away S11 worth of sharks liver!
Since then our harpooner has been
constantly vigilant, and all kinds
Of shark hooks have been out, and
even the diving helmet has been
resorted to. OF course, we have
had very poor luck since We caught
the fever of it.
However, I have as a trophy the
Jaws and teeth of a tintorera which,
II 1t had liver in proportion to
the rest Of its body, must have been
worth a nice sum. OF course, it
was caught before the information
about the liver business came to
hand. The jaws are 20 inches wide
and open to 21% inches at the maxi
mum. There are four rows of teeth,
each row having 43 of the meanest
looking saw devices imaginable.
Sharks Jaws Demonstrated.
I am familiar with all the lore
the harmlessness of
sharks, and the fact that they
properly set teeth and there
are no bones in their bodies. They
are, Of course, among the most
primitive of the larger animal forms,
and instead Of bones they have
substitutes, or rather
predecessors.
Nevertheless, I should not enjoy
being within easy biting distance of
a creature such as the one whose
biting equipment, whether it is
called bone or cartilage or evoluted
skin, I have just described. I am
now running my finger over the saw
edge of one of these pseudo teeth
and at the same time I am going
over In my mind something I read
about sharks before coming down
here. The author stated that it is
quite obvious that a sharks teeth
were never intended to do anything
more than grasp or detain its prey.
They are, he shows very learnedly,
not efficiently arranged and are not
set in a jaw strong enough to really
make use of them.
And yet we harpooned a much
smaller tintorera the other day in
the very act of swapping a 40-inch
jural in half. I am certain that
If we could interview both the
shark and the jurel we would get
ample confirmation of the scientific
theory as to the sharks low, car
status in the evolutionary
he was not bitten, but merely de-
tanned a trifle too roughly. The
tintorera would admit, also, that
she (the fiercest ones are females y
overstrained her jaws in an effort
and expected several days of head
ache from it. But the fact remains
that the jurel was somehow cut in
two as If by a buzz-saw.
Pearls Are Dangerous.
However, must not let the shark
yarns make it seem that I am
lodging the pearl question. I have,
as matter of fact, been charged
with just that, for my wife is with
me and makes frequent efforts to
interest me deeply, several hundred
dollars deep, in the subject. I will
tell all who may be interested what
I have told her, though probably
with a slightly different motive.
That is: Pearls are beautiful but
dangerous. They can be bought all
the way from $40 to $4,000 and
only a very few experts (only one
in the world of them being a
womanD can tell what they are
worth. Even so, the experts often
disagree widely.
There are even rumors that imi-
tation pearls have been shipped in
here from time to time to catch the
tourist. That being the