A Strange Adventure at the Solomon Islands.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6711, 29 June 1893, Page 4

A Strange Adventure at the Solomon Islands.

APPEARANCE OF A SEA MONSTER. The Argus special representative whe last year made personal investigation into the kanaka labor traffic writts as follows upon the mysterious appearance of a sea monster while the Helena was off the Solomon Islands on Oct. 22 and 2i :— We wero lying ab an anchorage called B&rananero, on the west side of Florida, in the Solomon Islands. This harbor is a deep indentation of the coast, enclosed ou three sides by steep hills, some tree-clad, others delectable slope* of luxuriant grass. The shore?-ywere fringed with cocoanut palms, under which nestled a number of native villages. Seaward a wooded island formed a natural mole, defending the port from the violence of the ocean wares, and leaving commodious entrances on either side, through which the tides ebbed and flowed. About a dozen canoes were moored to the sides of our vpssel, and their occupants were busy trafficking in yams »ud nuts for tobacco. Suddenly an unusual commotion was noticed in the water between us and the main island. At first it was supposed to be a tide rip, but on looking abroad the forging action of the flowing tide was seen well defined much farther away ; and it was observed that the agitation which had excited surprise whs caused by something m.-iking headway slowly but steadily against the tidal current. At times the movement of the water was in one place, and resembled the wash of the sea on a sunken rock. Then the objeofc causing it would get under way again and drift like a waterlogged raft submerged just below the surface. But it did not move or drift aimlessly. Nearer and nearer it came to the ship. Clearly it was a thing of life, and, When in course of time it came close enough for a part of it to be ewen through the clear water, exclamations of Burprise and horror rose from the deck, and the natives who were alongside in canoes fled in terror to the shore or sought safety on our deck, all screaming "Debbil, Debbil !" in hysterical voices. What was seen in the first instance was a huge open circular mouth, like an enormous life-buoy, with broad white lips and a dark interior. The cavity seemed big enough to admit a ships boat. Beyond the mouth was a dark body with innumerable fins and several pairs of winglike flappers. The monster had an irregular beam of thickness, being fifteen to twentyfive feet broad at its widest parts, and tapering now and again to waists about the thickness of the body of a bullock. At times as it progressed through the water the fins rose above the surface with a seemingly rotatory motion, in pairs, groups, and clusters, and with a regularity that reminded us of a complicated agricultural machine, such .is a reaper and binder, or the hooked lifts that raise and drop the stampers of a quartz battery. When these peculiarities were noted the fish, or part of it, was within ten to fifteen yards of the vessel. Captain Doig rushed for his gun, and waited at " the ready " for the monster to lift his head abeve water. Just then, however, the leviathan turned and sheered off without presenting a tempting enough target. But his curiosity about the ship was not satisfied, for he kept passing and repassing at a distance of, say, thirty yards the best part of an hour. His movements were of a slow elephantine character, and whan he turned he resembled a railway train rounding a curve. His whole outline was never once completely in view, and as only parts of him were seen at different times, or different parts at oue time, by men standing fore-and-aft, opinions were nob unanimous about his exact shape. We were all agreed, however, as to his mouth being prodigious and circular, and as to his body being broad in places and contracted in others. One of the sailors was positive he saw in tho mouth two huge white teeth like elephants' tusks. Others said they distinguished a long tapering tail. To the skipper and myself the monster seemed to be very much more than 40ft in length. The exposed fins farmed a line about the length of oar main boom, namely 40ft. The mate (Mr Moody) at first poohpoohea our estimate as being one of those proberbial exaggerations which sailors are said lo palm off on marines. He, like everyone else on board, had seen the creature when it was close to the ship, and was certain it was only 20ft long. He had scarcely uttered this assertion, how ever, when the fins rose once more in long array above the water, and Mr Moody was now satisfied, and emphatic in assertthat the line they formed measured nothing less than 50ft. How much of the monster remained unindicated below no one could estimate, but if allowance were made for a tail at all proportionate to the bulk of the body, the animal or fish, or whatever it was, must have been longer than the longest whale ever seen. In hope of hooking the mammeth fish, th c captain dropped a baited shark-hook attached to the lead line into the water, not expecting that that the tackle would be strong enough, but thinking that if the were taken the line would hold sufficiently 1< -iff to give a chance of dynamiting the 1 >te. The bait, however, did not attract, but the monster continued to cruise up and down, aud the captain and the steward eventually proceeded to pepper its fins wi: h bullets. They also fired at the head • ' c-i it appeared to be quite close to the feu of the water. They frequently hi? the fins, and every time one was hit c a bullet was placed in the vicinity of the head a few of the fins and flappers jy*> c a quick spasmodic turn, like the blnHeH vf a propeller, and the whole fish b; nk but only to rise in a minute and re-g-'.-ri- his peregrinations in the vicinity of t i vessel. Unlike a whale, he never - v. /! his head to the surface for the purj *. ..f breathing; there was no spouting from, § blow-hole ; bo he was evidently a

fish and not a mammal of any kind, but no oue on board could give the monster a name. And at the turn of the tido lie left us in perplexity. Next day (Sunday 23) we drifted a few miles down the coast, and dropped anchor off the islet of Mandolinm*. Hero nX»» n t .mi the following M->nd;iy, the mysterious, levuthiin, or another of his kind, paid •lersistent attentions to the Helena. He sw»'pr round the islet towards the vessel, md once c*me within fifteen yards of our aide. I counted ten patches on the body, white and round, each about the size of n wnshhAiid basin. Tho captain, the steward md one of the A B.s fired thirty shots at the fins, and at least ten of them were hits, but the fish did little more than wince, and, after sinking for a brief time, rose again to resume his course. But there was another surprise in store for ua. The line of fins and flappers suddenly stretched out to double its former length, and then everyone on board was prepared to swear that the finned park of the leviathan was byitself the full length of our ship, which measured 90ft from stem to abern. Closer inspection, howorer, showed that there were two separate areas of commotion moving, nowin echelon, and eventually in opposite directions. There were now, in fact, two monsters in evidence, and we could not help wondering what would happon should their numbers still farther increase, or oven if tho two already present became aggressive. Happily, our ugly visitors kept at a respectable distance, and received no addition to their number, and eventually a bullet from the captain's rifle fired from the port-hole of his cabin, at which he had ensconced himself to watch for a near shot, struck the water just whore the head of one of tho fish appeared to be within an inch or two of the surface. The shot was effective, for the monster instantly sank low and bowled away by our bows, and his companion followed shortly afterwards. What our extraordinary visitors were remains to be explained. Such monsters had never been seen before by any one on board. Mr Ussher, the Governmentagent, happened to be on shore each time of their appearance. From what he was told about them he was inclined to think they had been mammoth specimens of certain denizens of the deep called devil fish, some of which he had seen in former years about Sano.