FACING A SHARK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12278, 23 May 1903, Page 2 (Supplement)

FACING A SHARK.

Manifold are the adventures to be met under water by one who has the courage to screw himself into a diving-dress and descend. Says H. Phelps Whitmarsh, speaking of his experiences as a pearl-diver : — Within ten feet of me, half-hidden by a mass of cobweb coral lines, was the bulk of an immense shark. It apoeared to be about twenty-five feet long, and although I knew its size was greatly exaggerated by the faceglass the sight was none the less alarming. The creature had evidently not perceived me. Save for a slight trembling of the side fins it lay motionless. My first thought was to give the signal to ascend. As fish, however, usually want a thing as soon as they see it taken away 1 promptly rejected the idea; and, lest my bare hands should attract the animal's greed, 1 hid them under my chest-weight. A sweep of its tail, and the great fish and I were face to face. Not daring to move I stood like an image, my heart beating wildly and my eyes riveted on its cavernous mouth. He .was inspecting me curiously, as if I were some new kind of fish. Then I became aware, by the almost imperceptible motion of the flexible tail, that it was gradually approaching me. Nearer and nearer came the leviathan, the shovelshaped nose pointing directly to my faceglass, the gleaming under part now plainly visible. Flesh and blood could bear it no longer. With a yell I threw up my arms. Instantly there was a swirl of water, a cloud of mud, and my enemy had vanished.