SHARKS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 150, 17 March 1876, Page 13

SH AR K S.

Since the occurrence of that extraordinary and fatal affair at Emerald Hill by which an unhappy lad lost his life through the voracity of a shark (says the ' Advocate '), people appear°to be watchfully on the look-out for the appearance of this fish in the bay. And the consequence is that several of the species have been recently seen, and that, as in all similar cases, they are described as having been uncommonly large. Imagination may be the cause of exaggeration in these accounts, just as it was in the case of the superseded snake, but in any case the stories should be told as of warning to those who have the hardihood to bathe in open waters on the coast. The 'Age' says:— Two gentlemen yesterday, walking from Brighton to Mordialloc along the beach, when about two miles from the latter place, observed one of these creatures at a distance of about thirty yards from the shore. It followed the pedestrians keeping at about the same distance off for fully half a mile evidently having its eye on them, for on their stopping at one of the projecting points of the beach to watch it more intently it deliberately swam straight in till within six yards of where they were standing ; so near indeed that stones were thrown at it, and upon one of them striking its back it sheered right off into deep water. It was at least eight feet in length. The pedestrians had not proceeded above half a mile further before they perceived two other sharks, apparently about the same size as the first one coming in the opposite direction, and within a short distance of each other. Not one of the three, it is stated, was in mowTthan three feet of water. The ' Williamstown Advertiser ' reports the following narrow escape from a shark :— " About noon a young man, named Dellar was enjoying a bath within the enclosure set apart for gentlemen' when he was suddenly alarmed by a call from two orthrec boys standing on the stage that a large shark, measuring 7ft., was near him He at once rushed to the landing, and was closely followed by the fish to the steps. The youth, terrified and trembling °-ot

a footing on the platform in time for his life, and too soon for the shark, which turned over in the usual way before seizing its prey, and then went away." r j »