The Northern News. — 1898-08-20 (Carlisle, Cumbria, England)

TERRIBLE FATALITY AT ADEN. A SOLDIER KILLED BY A SHARK. The ".Times of India" pt.blishes the following from an Aden oorrespondent :—A very slid occur mice took place here on Thunglay, the 14th JILT, which evoked much consternation amongst the inhabitants. Few people who have passed through Aden are unacquainted with the fact that the sea und about the place abounds with sharks, wh,ch at the mot soon ocuon of the year are tempted to (ion:, further into the harbour than usual, and appear in greater numbers than at other times. Almost every year witnesses an occurrence similar to the one I am about to relate, and serves as a forcible reminder of the der.gens inmrred by any person eho is tempted to indulge in the luxury of a swim in the se% here. A gunner named Davies, in one of the companies of the Royal Artillery stationed here, went to bathe on Thursday afternoon with some fellow-soldiers at a part of the beech known as Sappers' Bay. He had not been in the water long, and was standing at a depth of only three feet at the time, when he was sudded.y pounced upon by a shark, and in an instant had one of his hands and a large portion of the right aide of his body bitten oiean away. The unfortunate fellow succumbed a very few minutes aftervrarde from lc es of blood, almost as soon as he had been carried ashore by his horrorstricken companions. So terribly mutilated was his body that no medical aid, however speedily it might have been rendered, would have availed in saving his Lie. His funeral, which was a military one, took place the following clay. Davies was a young, well set-up fellow of only 22. It is almost inexplicabe how truth a monitor as a shark could have come so clots to the shore as to attack a person in such shallow water, but the incident will tend to lessen the foolhardiness of those who have not a euffieient dread of the &hallo with which the waters of Aden are inveeted.• It happens not infrequently that one of the Somali or Arab diving boys, for whom Aden is famous, and who surround every passenger steamer that entails the harbour in daylight shouting." I dive, I dive," has an arm or a leg bitten off while bringing up out of the water the coin thrown in by the amused passenger. Several of these little fellows have loot their lives while prosecuting their ceiling, and the number of them to be seen on the streets of Aden going about minus a limb is an indication of how often they have to pay the penalty of their rashness. This, however, does not seem to deter them from pursuing an ooctipation fraught with so much danger, and few travellers would imagine while witnessing the alacrity with which they " hab a dive," when induced by a silver coin to do so, that the risks they run are so great.  The unhealthy concoctions which are *old under the title of ice cream to children in the street are, says a London correspondent, likely to be replaced by more innocent fare. The Paddington Vestry has instructed ita officer of health to take samples of that and any other "insidious mixtures" sold in the streets, in order that they may be subjected to analysis. Besides this, it has voted twenty-five guineas for the coot of a bacteriological examination. The Vestries of Clerkenwell and Holborn have taken similar steps. The very intimation that such a resolution has been arrived at will probably stop the selling of such injurious and deadly compounds as have frequently been offered in the streets. The body of a young man named Sheckley was found in the Eden at Carli.le. He had been missing for about a week, and is believed to have committed suicide because le had sustained a black eye in a fight on Bank Holiday, and had been chaffed about it. The adjourned proceedings against MrPBtepliens, M.P., for assaulting Mies Ford in connection with what is known as the Hythe kidnapping cease were to have been heard at Hythe, but is was announced that the at had been amicably settled out of court.