Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 November 1891 — TIGERS OF THE SEA. [ARTICLE]

TIGERS OF THE SEA.

The Shark’s Ferocity Illustrated by a True Story. There are about sixty species of sharks known to scientific observers, and this much-dreaded croaturu is found in every sea ploughed by the keel of a ship. Some of them, such as the dog-fish, are not more than two feet long, while others are from thirty to fifty feet. But they are nearly all ferocious, and tho stories that one reads in Marryat's novels about the many inon who have been devoured by those ravenous creatures are strictly true. The shark known as the maneater —a huge boast, from twenty-five to forty feet long—will lio for days near a ship, picking up the garbage that falls overboard. With one snap of his jaws ho can cut tho body of a man in two. All tho fishermen along our coasts dread sharks, y,nd toll stories about then ferocity, but they are not deterred from hunting thorn, us tho fish is very valuable for the oil obtained from it. There are many ways of catching sharks. Some fishermen trap them in strong nets held by heavy grapnels and anchors; many expert hunters fire small bombs into them, which often kill the fish instnntly; others pursue them with harpoons in the same way as. the whale is caught. But the larger number of sharks ure captured with hooks. They take almost, any kind of bait, but what they prefer most is fat pork, which the fishermen put on a large hook, to which is attuphed a stout bank-line. A Canadian fisherman who walked with a halt oneo said to me, “ You wonder, perhaps, why 1 walk like this. Well, it comes of shark-catching. One day last summer when we could get no codfish either with nets or hooks, we thought wo hud better try for dog-fish, or, rather, small sharks, for a lot of them hud been banging around us for u couple of days. All other fish were scarce, and that is the reason why tho sharks kept so close to us. When anything was thrown overboard, a shark would thrust his head out of tho water nml seise it. There is a lot of oil to begot from sharks and dog-fish, and about August, the liver of the dog-fish is nearly all fat. So we put out our linos, stout hank-lines they were, baiting them with fat, pork, and patiently awaited the result. Wo did not expoet to cuteh any big sharks, but only the dog-fish, which wo know were around in shoals. The rest of tho crow liegun to haul in dog-fish as fust as they could, hocuuso tho brutes were hungry, and snapped at everything they could, oat. I also eauglit two or three dog-fish, and unhooked them. The dog-fish is only a couple of feet long, and it isn't, hard to pull him in, but his tins will cut you; and his skin, under the name of shagreen, is used by cabinet-makers and other woodworkers instead of sandpupor, it is so rough and hard. Again 1 threw out my hook and line, ami this time felt a tremendous tug at it. I pulled pretty hard, but couldn't draw the fish, and one of tny mates standing iieur me said, ‘You lmvo got hold of one of the big fellows; bo easy with him now, lie will be worth a hundred of these.’ I hud caught big sharks before, nml know how to inmtugo, though tiiis was an extremely savugo one. Ho dove nourly plumb down into the sea, and 1 lot out. lint) as fast us was necessary; then lie turned and shot up for the surface, and dhrted in one direction and another for nearly fifteen minutes, until I tired him out. Then 1 drugged him alongside, not pulling too hard, lest I should tear out the hook, and when I got him to the waterline there was not inueli lifo left in him. We ‘bowsed’ him üboard, and let him flop on the deck. He was thirteen feet louo, and hud a mouth large enough to bite otf and swallow half of a man. 1 was foolish enough to go up by bis head and begin to tuke otf the rope; but 1 hud no sooner done so lium he turned on his side and seized my leg in his jaws. One of my mates grabbed an axe, and running over, struck the shark flvo or six times upon the head with all his might. That stunned him, and his jaws opened. But he had broken the bone of iny leg at the knee, and Litton out nearly a pound of flesh, besides cutting one ot the tendons. That is tho reason why 1 am lame. Tho best way to make sure about a slmrk is either to break its skull when you got him üboard, or fire two or three bullets through j.ts bruin. —[Harper’s Young People.