SEIZED BY A SHARK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14926, 26 February 1912, Page 8

SEIZED BY A SHARK.

BATHER ATTACKED.

PAKT OF LEG BITTEN OFF.

It has often been declared by those who are warned against bathing in water where sharks have been seen that the monsters are cowards at heart, and will not attack a bather who is in the company of others. But because a theory is asserted, it is j not necessarily fact, and the fallacy of the idea that sharks are cowardly was proved last week in Cogee Bay, Sydney, when a bather named Frederick William Wort, had an adventure which he is not likely to forget as long as he lives. The young fellow swam out for a distance of, perhaps, 200 yds, to where there is a line of floating seaweed, which had formed as the result of the recent heavy weather. Ho had just reached the weed when he found himself face to face with a shark. With a startled cry, "A eh ark, a shark!" he turned and headed for the shore, with the knowledge that the brute had seen him, and the fear that it would surely attack him. Ho swam a? he had never swum before, but that was not fast enough, for the shark caught him by the legs. The monster did not get a fair grip, or nothing could have saved the young fellow, but it succeeded in inflicting a" nasty lacerated wound down the front of the right leg, tearing part of the flesh from the foot. And on the other foot, too, there were plain marks-left of the cruel teeth. In spite of the pain and ehock, Wort kept his head, and pluckily continued swimming, and the shark, not making a fresh attack, he reached the basin, where Mr. J. McCauley, the proprietor, saw him, and communicated immediately with the Randwick division of the St. John Ambulance Association. The members of the brigade hurried to the basin, and, after rendering first aid, carried Wort to their shed. With thoughts for the probable anxiety of others, Wort wished to bo taken to his home right away, but in view of his injuries, it was thought advisable to remove him to a hospital. He has two large wounds on his left leg, just above the ankle, but the casualty surgeon states that he will be able to save the leg.