Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 November 1892 — WHAT SWALLOWED JONAH? Perhaps It Was a White Shark Instead of a Whale. [ARTICLE]

WHAT SWALLOWED JONAH? Perhaps It Was a White Shark Instead of a Whale.

There is no arguthent valid upon a premise of inherent impossibility. It used to be concluded beyond question that there were no black swans, because it is impossible to conceive a black swan. But one harmless and unconscious black swan from the antipodes put all the ingenious thinkers to rout. Hume argued from his conception of a true induction that the major premise must include all possible cases. This he thought conclusive against a great deal of popular belief. But what test have we of the possible? It is harder to believe ,that we have explored and classified the whole field of knowledge, than that a ravenous fish—with no higher and no lower thought in its meager brain than a plentiful dinner—should have swallowed and then disgorged a man. Besides, we are not without evidence that such piscine conduct is at least possible. Jonah was sailing in the Mediterranean—right along its whole length—from Joppa, in Palestine, to Tarshish, in Spain; and it is in this very sea that even at the present day a huge fish, the white shark, is found. And not only this, but the bones of a much larger species now extinct. For ihe word used in the Bible is a gen

eral term for a large fish, and It Ideludes in various writers sharks, tunnies, whales, dolphins, and seals. This white shark attains such a size has been known to weigh fuuj tons and a half. One that was exhibited last century over Europe weighed nearly two tons, and very nearly re-enacted the part of Jonah’s fish. A British war vessel was sail* ing in the Mediterranean when a man fell overboard. A huge shark instantly rose and the unlucky seaman disappeared within its mouth. The captain fired a gun at it from the deck, and as the shot struck upon its back It cast‘the man outagain and be was rescued by his companions. They forthwith harpooned the fish, dried him, and presented him to his intended victim. In the beginning of this century a shark was taken at Surinam, and in it was discovered the body of a woman excepting the head. Instances are recorded upon good authority of specimens being found in the same sea; one with a sea calf in its stomach as big as an ox, another with a whole horse, and another with two tunnies and a man. That a man coaid live there for a considerable time seems by no means impossible.