COURAGE OF MAN-EATER

Evening Star, Issue 18044, 11 August 1922, Page 1

COURAGE OF MAN-EATER

FEROCIOUS! SEA DEMONS. Tlie theory often expressed by travellers that tha ■man-eating' shark is a coward is seldom borne out by facte. A shark will, after tbs briefest investigation, attack man or beast in the water, and when wounded by knife or bullet will return to its assailant or prey. Nearly all the year round the coast, and bays of the Australiaipcontineoit are the hunting grounds of voracious blue-pointers and tiger sharks. A mounted police officer once told m a (says Siberi Dorrington, in the London ‘ Daily Ala.il ’) that it wa-s bis job to watch piers and jetties to prevent children and grown-ups from dangling their legs over the water. “The sharks, too, patrol tha beaches.” he said, “ and no leg is safe sft from the water.”

Swimming race,horses on South Melbourne Beach is always a risky practice. On one occasion I. saw a home pulled through the surf .into deep water by a prowling “tiger.” The rider escaped only by the prompt action of the watchers on the beach.

In North Queensland recently a now arrival swam from a river mouth to an iron buoy -anchored a hundred yards from the shore. It was during the heat of midday. On reaching the buoy the swimmer discovered that it bad become too hot to touch or hold. He turned to swim back to the shore, and saw a 18ft shark almost at his Heels.

In his desperation bo Eorambled on to the sun-heated iron buoy. The shark withdrew fifty yards to await developments. Unable to bear the intense heat of the buoy, the swimmer plunged into the water for a cooler. In a Hash wie 12ft 'monster returned. driving the unfortunate follow back to the buoy. The game of slipping from the unbearable buoy into the water and scrambling back each lime the shark cruised near was repeated a- dozen times, until a friend on shore realised what, waa happening. A boat sped ewiftly to His aid, and the venturesome swimmer was brought in more dead than alive.

In reply to a question of mine concerning the courage of sharks, Captain Davidson, of the whaling station at Kia, Twofold Bay, Now South Wales, pointed to a whaleboat with two top planks missing. “ A shark tore them out because I hit him with a harpoon. When I hit liim I thought he was tinished; but the brute came back; and smashed three oars as well as the planks. Wrong kind of fishing for mo, sir!” The swimmer.or boatman who trusts to the shark’s lack of courage to attack or defend itself is sometimes sharply disillueioned. A FLORIDA TRAGEDY. From New York comes a tragic report of the horrible death of a girl who was swimming in the sea off- Florida, and who was bitten to death, not by _ sharks, but by another giant fish. The victim, rfisa Dorothy M'Ctatehie, an eighteen-yoar-old girl, was killed while on a long-distance swim by «, giant barracuda, known to fishermen as the “ tiger of the seas.” Miss M’Ciatchie, (Ite champion swimmer of the States, started with a friend, Mary Bubncrv. on a practise swim to a buoy half a mile from the shore. After rounding the buoy, Miss Buhnery was startled by tie sudden disappearance of her companion, who came to the surface a moment later, gasping. “I’ve been bitten. I think ray foot is gone.” The water was stained with blood. Miss Buhnery twain to the injured girl, and caught her by f he shoulders. “ Kiss me. Mary: I’m dying,” were tic only word*. Min-: M'fcklchie uttered. Mies Buhnery raised herself in tie water, and made signals with her bathing cap to boatmen half a mile away. When help arrived the gallant girl was supporting the dead body of her friend, who had suffered a score of w-ouuds from » ferocious barrneuda. There were two gashes 14in long, and,one of them bad severed an artery of the left leg. The great barracuda o' Florida, n voracious pike-like fhh, is often 6:1 long and as dangerous a« a shark.