PHENOMENAL SHARK STORY.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7958, 24 January 1888, Page 4

PHENOMENAL SHARK STORY.

. ' Mr ' George Drevar, of 37, George-street, : Sydney, furnishes an account of what seems to have been a somewhat phenomenal trip from Cooktown to Sydnoy. The steamer Barcoo, by which he was a • passenger, left Cooktown early on the morning of December 17th. Thn 'first object which tliey sighted was the threemasted schooner May flower, flying signals ' of distress, that she was short of provisions. " Boxes of canned goods, tinned meat, and flour were sent to her," but our correspondent} thinks that considering she Was quietly anchored in Weary Bay, "' within easy distance of Cooktown, her captain might have mado an effort to get 'what he wanted from that township. As a consequence of this generosity, when the steamer arrived in Cleveland Ray, off Townsville, on Sunday "there was a great row about not having duff or pudding for dinner." The cause of the trouble was that the distressed schooner had obtained some of the material. To make up for the loss of this they hooked the next day a monster in the shape of a gigantic .. shark. The hook and line not being sufficiently strong to hold the shark, abont 30 large revolver balls were fired into its head, and a bow line having been secured round it, it was hoisted on deck ' hy means of the steam wincb. Bnt the most extraordinary part of the affair was yet to come. ' ' On opening the shark 49 young tiger sharks 20in long, perfect and lively, came out." There were also quantities of large bones, together with two marine serpents, iff perfect condition, and measuring 5f b Oin in length. As if this was not enough there wero several live worms an inch and a half long which . were taken from the snakes.. These Mr Drevar kept alive in a bottle of salt water for three days arid most of the tigers kept alive for twelve hours. "It occurs to me," he concludes, " that after all the shark may be a good friend to man in placo of an enemy. If these marine snakes, which are all very poisonous, were allowed to increase, and if the same ignorance which now prevails concerning them continued to exis»t, no doubt many more deaths would occur from them than from the much-dreaded . shark."