28 Shark Against Man 



Three hundred yards off the shore of North Bondi, Australia, two surf-boarders freeze 

 in terror as the dorsal fin of a shark cuts through the water close to them. The shark 

 circled the youths for 40 minutes before a boat chased it out to sea. (This unbelievable 

 picture has been double-checked for accuracy. It was taken by Sydney Daily Telegraph, 

 photographer John Askew. ) United Press International Photo 



to a drop-off some 6 feet from shore. "I was almost certain," he said 

 later, "that in such shallow water I would be safe from anything large 

 enough to bite." 



Drayton was thus sitting in shallow water when ... "I felt a swerve 

 of water, which was immediately followed by an impact which brought 

 me to my senses. Something clamped down on my right leg. I was aware 

 of a tearing pain up and down my leg, and that I was being pulled 

 outward by something which seemed to have the power of a horse. 

 Looking down, I saw, amid the foam and splashing, the head of a large 

 shark with my knee in its mouth, shaking it as a puppy would shake a 

 stick in attempting to take it away from someone. Through natural 

 instinct, I started kicking frantically with my unharmed leg, in order 

 to free myself. I freed my right leg, only to have the monster bite me 

 on my left one. 



"All this time I had been pulling myself up on the beach backwards 

 with my hands and kicking at the rough head of the shark, which 

 seemed to me as solid as Gibraltar. 



"Although to you this may seem long and strung out," Drayton 

 told Burton, "it must have all happened in a space of ten seconds . . . 

 Some people said I had been bitten by everything from crabs up to 

 whales ... I still have a perfect design of a shark's mouth around my 

 knee, measuring ten inches across. This confirms the statement of my 



