TIGERS OF THE DEEP.

Otago Witness, Issue 2325, 22 September 1898, Page 62

TIGERS OF THE DEEP.

By a Banker. j The harrowing description of the capsizing of a boat containing 14 men, all of whom were immediately devoured by sharks, which has recently appeared in the newspapers, forcibly brings to our notice the savage voracity of these rapacious scourges of the sea. Some of the var eties of this monster are gigantic in size, the shark known as the man-eater attaining a length of no less than 36ft, while the researches of the Challenger prove that the lower depths of the ocean are the home of a variety yet more imme lse. These latter do not appear ever to coni3 to the surface. Th i shark, being encased in a coat of impel € crable mail, is practically invulnerable to almost all the denizens of the deep ; man, howovei, is able easily to conquer it. The capturt of a large specimen is described as a most exe'tmg incident in the monotony of a voyage, tho savage fury of the animal when drawn up on deck, lashing its tail in maddened rage, and throwing itself high in air in the paroxysms of its infuriated wrath, being a spectacle quite teiriblc to behold. Its tenacity of life is marvoilcus, portions of the body continuing to move after having been severed from the rest; in fact, the writer was informed by one of his sons, who assisted in the capture of a large specimen, that the heart continued lo jump on the deck after it had been removed from the body. An; kind of flesh is devoured by these carnuorous ravagers; man, however, is unquestionably his favourite food. In the old days of slo\ery, the slave ships were followed by herds of them, ready to snap up the corpses of the wretched negroes who had been suffocated in the hold, who, one after the other, were thrown over the ship's side. Commerson relates that a negro was hanged on the yard-arm of a small ship for some offence, and though the body was hanging some 20ft above the sea, a large shark, after making repeated efforts to Snatch it, at length succeeded in seizing and devouring it. Picbably of all forms of death, to be captured by a shark is perhaps the most terrible. A lion, after seizing his prey, gives a twitching soi t of jerk, like a cat with a mouse, which, as Dr Livingstone relates from personal experience, deadens the sensibilities and produces a kind of ana sthetic torpor ; but the sensations of a man who has accidentally fallen into the sea and finds a furious monster of a shark making for hioi must be horrible beyond description. For, as ho &ccs the gigantic mouth opened several feet wide about to close upon him, and then feels the murderous rows of sharp teeth penetrating through and through his lacerated flesh and bones, and he is ciunched between the brute's awful jaws, he realises that in a moment or two he will be swallowed whole, and that his tomb will be the repulsive interior of his dovourer. And at that moment of lurid and graesome j hcrior, the whole of his life history distinctly rises before him, every misdeed he has committed, every unholy act, in fact the long list recorded against him above being, as by a rnira- | cle, flashed before him in a moment of time. It appears to be an acknowledged and well-authen-ticated fact that this strange mental record is frequently, and probably always, present at the I moment of death by violence (and probably also at death by natural causes, but in these latter j cases r>f course no record is possible), many | persons- who k were onthe poiiit of perishing by drowning, etc., having recorded their experience of this strange phenomenon. But unless we have the protection of a Higher Power, we are all subject to the deadly attacks of a far more dangerous and malignant foe, for our~great Adversary is always " going about seeking whom he -may devour " ; seldom, however, clothing himself in repulsive form, but stealthily and cunningly offering forbidden pleasures or illicit worldly gams, or stirring tip rebellious thoughts^regarding Him who demands our obedience and our service. Happily that prelection is never withheld from those who earr estly ask it, and whose lives are regulated iv conformity with His will and precepts as laid down in His holy word.

"JUDGE NOT." " For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall ba iudged; and with what measure ye mete,., it shall be measured to you again."— St. Matthew vii, 2. Judge not, O friend, thy fellow man, Nor seek to besmirch his name, For as ye have done unto men, Unto you shall be done the same. Search, O friend, in your own heart, And see no evil is there, Ere you plant that quivering daft Of shame in the heart laid bare. 'Tis not, O friend, for you to judge The guilt or sin of men, The heart, in its inmost core. Holds secrets beyond your ken. If the prelude of angels' song You would hear in the home above, Seek not thy fellow to wrong, But smooth his path with love. Shame may o'erwhelm the heart That is pure as the lily within, But God will decide the issue, On the judges will rest the sin. The Son of Crocl on earth was jiidged, And for us ho suffered pain ; Thy petty tribunal is nought, For he will return again. Thy judgment, friend, is impotent, For the world is big and wide; Then leave the issue with God, And stand by the fallen's side. Judge not! God's condemnation Rests o'er the judge's head, And bitter woe be unto him [ Who by his hatred is led. | —Alton C. Richards. Mount Aiiliur, September 1898.