Aug. 23, 1888.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



87 



about forty years of age, with small jet black eyes, quiet, 

 soft spoken, and m ild until excited. Jose, a small , active 

 man, about thirty-five, a good sailor, but of low intelli- 

 gence. The other two, Bill and Jack, were of slightly 

 mixed race, lively young fellows of about twenty years. 

 Their duties were: Two at the oars for two hours at a 

 time to keep the seine stretched; the third at the tiller, 

 keeping a. sharp lookout over the southwest waters, and 

 one to see that all was right and to notice the approach of 

 any whales, porpoises, or other large sea mammals, and 

 sharks. If such were seen approaching, it was the duty 

 of the fourth man to take the smallboat and try and turn 

 them from the seine; otherwise he rested or slept. 



The evening wore on with no excitement nor life in 

 sight, except now and then a school of porpoises passing 

 up inside toward the shore, until just at dusk, when a 

 whale spouted four times to the southwest, threw his 

 flukes in the air and disappeared. As they stay under 

 the water from thirty to sixty minutes before coming up 

 to breathe again we heard no more of him. I sat in the 

 peak of the boat after dark enjoying it greatly. The 

 moon in its first quarter hung brightly in the western 

 sky, its bright gleam on the waves stretching for leagues 

 to a point beneath. The points of the bright lights of the 

 city of Santa Cruz twinkled at the eastward and the 

 great dark billows of the Coast Range loomed behind 

 them. Sixty miles to the northward the hundreds of 

 electric lights of the city of San Francisco changed the 

 dark gray-blue clouds to a fleecy whiteness, The waters 

 around us was filled with tens of thousands of phosphor- 

 escent lights flashing in every direction. Every one of 

 the millions of life in the great deep left this fleeting 

 quickly vanishing trail of pale firelight behind it. Away 

 down in the inky" depth the denizens of the deep could be 

 followed in their motions and dartings by a pale blue 

 stream of bluish light. We were indeed afloat and alone 

 on the restless bosom of the mightiest of oceans, a mere 

 speck on its vastness. What if a sudden fierce storm 

 should arise, what would become of us in our frail open 

 boat? All of us knew that this part of the great Pacific 

 brews no such storms, besides we knew that if the wind 

 should come on to "blow great guns" our watchf ul skipper 

 would soon be out with the Emma and rescue us. 



Sittiug thus dreaming and building air castles, think- 

 ing of the fierce and murderous and most dangerous war 

 waged on the humpbacks and California gray whales 

 twenty-five or thirty years ago by man, when oil was oil, 

 in the lovely bay before us, of the myriads of mighty 

 mammals that once thronged this coast before the whale- 

 men with harpoon and bomb gun and lance came and well 

 nigh exterminated them, when the humpback and the 

 great sulphur bottom could seek shelter in the bays and 

 estuaries of this coast and bring forth and suckle their 

 young undisturbed. 



Time wore on. About midnight the thing became 

 monotonous, and I had begun to think of snuggling 

 down and taking a nap. Jack and Bill were at the oars, 

 quietly pulling: Jose sat against the side of the boat 

 soundly sleeping; Miguel bad been standing stolidly in 

 the stern of the boat for a long time, his keen black eyes 

 wandering restlessly along the pale blue light caused by 

 the seine in the water. The boys chatted away about 

 their girls and other subjects. The rope from the end 

 of the seine had been fastened to the end of the boat. 

 All at once the boat gave a long and sudden lurch back- 

 ward with such force as to leave the oarsmen in a heap 

 at the bottom of the boat, with the bulky form of Miguel 

 on top of them. Luckily for myself I had a short time 

 before sat down in the boat with my back to the wind, 

 or I probably would have been compelled to wade ashore. 

 Miguel sprang up as quick as a flash and yelled, "To 

 your oars, boys; there is a whale right ahead of us — look 

 out for his flukes," but he had hardly got the words out 

 of his mouth when the boat gave another surge and 

 down he went again, and directly after there was a fear- 

 ful splashing in the water away off toward the southern 

 end of the seine. The boat gave surge after surge, and 

 it was not possible for one to stay on his feet without 

 something to hold to. In the first tumble one of the oars 

 was lost and was floating away. The whale boat was 

 liable at any moment to crush the small boat. Miguel, 

 though usually cool and collected, a life-long fisherman, 

 seemed for a time to entirely lose his head. He could in 

 no way understand the state of things. The boat kept 

 on surging. At last it dawned on his mind that some 

 great fish or whale had become entangled in the seine. 

 Gradually he collected his scattered senses into his 

 noddle — the oar must be regained and. the small boat 

 cared for. He ordered Jose to get into the small boat 

 aud go after the oar, but he did not respond. This 

 called our attention to him, and we saw he was sitting 

 in the bottom of the boat, hanging on with both hands, 

 prostrated with fright. Miguel could not move him by 

 commands or threats, so he ordered J ack to perform the 

 task, which he reluctantly did. He was gone some time 

 and at last returned with the oar. 



In the meantime the surgings continued and the furi- 

 ous splashings grew somewhat nearer. All at once the 

 line was drawn very taut and the stern of the boat was 

 drawn down so as to nearly take water, and the first 

 wave caused us to ship considerable water — the next 

 one would have sunk us. We all rushed to the Dow of 

 the boat, but before she had shipped the next wave the 

 line slackened and we were for the time safe. Then all 

 was quiet for a time, but soon the splashings commenced 

 again still nearer. After a time, again the line drew 

 down the stern of the whale boat, but this time we were 

 all ready to jump into the small boat. After shipping a 

 part of two waves the line eased up and she was bailed 

 out. The same thing was kept up for a long time, the 

 splashing constantly nearing us. 



Jose pitifully begged Miguel to cut the line and get 

 away out of danger, and Jack and Bill at times added 

 their voices to the prayer, but Miguel's natural courage 

 had come back to him. His all in this world was repre- 

 sented by a share or two in the Emma and the seine; 

 and he determined not to let go until forced to. All was 

 dark except our dim light on the mast. At last Miguel 

 determined to take the small boat and go down the seine 

 and see what was the matter. We all joined in begging 

 him not to do tins, he showed his determination by 

 roughly ordering Jack and J ose to take the oars and Bill 

 the rudder. They saw there was no use urging him fur- 

 ther, so he grimly dropped into the little boat and sculled 

 away. Before starting he lengthened out the line at- 

 tached to the seine as much as he could and gave it two 

 turns around the mast, crossed the end over the line and 



gave it to me to hold, with strict orders not to let go un- 

 less I was certain the boat would go down, if I did not 

 let go. He stayed by us for some time until the stern 

 was drawn down about as before and then started. He 

 assured us he would be very careful. The fearful splash- 

 ings and thrashings were still nearing us, and he did not 

 have far to go. He soon came back with a puzzled look. 

 He said, "I could not see much, but it is certain that 

 some great fish has tangled itself up in the seine. It 

 seems too small and lively for a whale and too largo for 

 a shark. It is a livelv customer whatever it is." 



And so the minutes, seeming hours, wore on. Every 

 half hour or so our boat's stern would be drawn down as 

 before described, each time seeming as if an inch or two 

 more or another wavo would send us to the bottom. Not 

 being able to swim an inch, I kept precious near to the 

 small boat. At times all would be quiet for a long time. 

 Then there would be a great thrashing, snapping and 

 splashing. Then down we would go. We soon found 

 tha t When all was quiet the least noise would start trouble. 

 So when quiet was on, we kept quiet. Toward morning 

 we found that the commotion was only the length of our 

 line away. At last day began to break, and as light 

 began to spread over the dark waters we could see stick- 

 ing out of the water the length of our line away a black 

 triangle and a great bunch. So soon as there was light 

 enough to see fairly plain some made a noise, and then 

 trouble again commenced. The triangle was thrown 

 high in the air, and we saw that it was the upper fluke of 

 some great fish's tail that lashed the sea into foam. 

 Besides its strokes in the water we could hear crash, 

 crash, crash, like the fall of a heavy board on a floor. 

 After a time all disappeared beneath the water and the 

 stern of our boat was again drawn down. This time, 

 when the line slackened up we were half full of water, 

 aud the fish that had caught us was much nearer than 

 before. 



It was now light enough to take in the situation. The 

 first order of Miguel was to make fast another line to the 

 one to the seine, so as to give us more sea room. This 

 was quickly done, when down she went again, this time 

 coming very near to us. This gave Miguel a hint, so he 

 ordered Bill and Jack to the oars and told them so soon 

 as the fish went down to pull steadily away. We soon 

 saw that our safety depended on this strategy, for the 

 fish was as likely to come up directly under us as any- 

 where, and it seemed rather more likely, and we at once 

 saw that if our boat was once hit with the tail of the 

 monster it would be crushed into kindling wood. As the 

 morning grew into brightness the fish's struggles for 

 freedom became more furious and kept us busy to keep 

 out of his way. We could now see that the creature had 

 become entangled in tin; seine at or near its south end, 

 and he had in some way by his struggles for freedom 

 continually rolled himself upin it, and had in fact nearly 

 the whole three thousand feet wound around his body. 

 The high gray hump we had seen in the early morning 

 was where the seine was wound over the high dorsal fin, 

 which was over three feet high. The seine was several 

 times folded through its mouth and hung at each side 

 cut into fringe by its sharp teeth. The body from its 

 belly or anal fins and the great flukes of the tail were 

 free. One of its great pectoral or forward side fins was 

 free, the other rolled tight to its body by the seine. It 

 was constantly bringing its great jaws together with a 

 crash, and so the fearful fun went on until 10 o'clock, when 

 the captain and the Emma came on the scene, and a 

 madder man than our captain never made a quarterdeck 

 blue and sulphurous with oaths. To see his great new 

 seine, the first time she was ever wet, wrapped round 

 and chewed up in such a fashion was enough to make 

 him mad. He was so excited that it was all we could do 

 to keep him out of danger, but he soon cooled off and 

 took in the situation. It was decided that if we let go 

 fish and seine were both lost. If we hung on to it, what 

 would eventually be the end? They could see no safe 

 way by which they could approach and kill, nor had 

 they a t hand anything to kill it with, if they could. They 

 consulted about running down to the opposite side of the 

 bay and getting a bomb gun, used there for killing whales, 

 but then came the idea that if they threw a bomb into it, 

 the bomb would utterly destroy the seine. At last after 

 a long consultation it was agreed that the captain should 

 take Miguel's place and hang on to things, and Miguel go 

 back with the Emma after grub, counsel and irrigation 

 material. 



I concluded to stay with the captain and see the fun, 

 and fun we did have. It was nearly one continuous 

 round of thrashing, snapping and diving. Had the other 

 great pectoral fin been free we could plainly see that we 

 would have been towed where the fish willed, and drawn 

 to the bottom of the sea or forced to cut the rope. As it 

 was, the fish would only swim in a circle and could only 

 sound or dive a certain distance. Owing to the use of 

 only one fin he went down and up in the segment of a 

 circle. By the time of the return of tlie Emma, at 5 

 o'clock, we could see that the fish was weakening gradu- 

 ally. She brought out several old salts, learned in the 

 monsters of the sea, most of them having shares in the 

 rig, to consult what to do. After long deliberation it was 

 concluded to hang on to the creature until the steamer 

 running from here to San Diego was due up on Friday, 

 this was Wednesday eve, and then, if possible, induce 

 the officers to haul all on board, save the seine in 

 as good shape as possible, and bring the monster fish to 

 the city and place it on exhibition as a "marine monster, 

 a great man-eating shark." A new crew was placed in 

 the whale boat, with full instructions from Miguel how 

 to manage things, and I took passage with the other worn 

 out ancient mariners for shore. 



During the day I had carefully eyed the monster and 

 concluded he was about 30ft. long. All the information 

 I could get from Miguel or the captain was that it was a 

 "bone shark." I came back to the city full and running 

 over with shark. I fell asleep at night and an endless 

 procession of great black sharks with snow white bellies 

 and new moon-shaped mouths armed with row after row 

 of glittering sharp teeth kept snapping me in two and 

 then fiercely fighting for the pieces; and then while I 

 was calmly enjoying the fun I would be snapped in two 

 again, and so on". It was fun for the sharks and somehow 

 under the circumstances I enjoyed it also. 



Bone shark! What in blazes is a bone shark! I had 

 read a most perfect treatise on the ancient and modern 

 sharks, but not one word did it say about bone sharks. It 

 said the fish of the genus Squalus were fierce, active, 

 most ravenous and carnivorous fishes belonging to one 



of the oldest forms of fishes, that they were fearfully de- 

 structive to all forms of ocean life, that they could 

 handle and were very dangerous to human beings if in 

 the water. Also that they are cartilagenous fishes or 

 without bones. Ah, I have it! I have a friend who was 

 for thirty years a whaleman and an observing man, pos- 

 sibly he will know what a bone shark is. He does; well 

 W.hat is it? "Why a bono shark." That settled it. I 

 asked him how large a bone shark he had ever seen, its 

 color, etc. "I have seen them 30ft. long and have seen 

 ten barrels of oil taken from one liver. I heard of one 

 taken near New Providence over 30ft. long and its liver 

 made fifteen barrels of oil." I replied that that was a 

 fish story indeed, but be replied a little hotly that it was 

 true, that he personally knew some of the crew who made 

 the capture and they were truthful men, and referred me 

 to the papers publishing the facts. The great quantity 

 of oil in the liver gave me a clew and I asked my sailor 

 friend if he had ever heard of anything called a basking 

 shark. He answered, "Yes, I have heard landlubbers 

 call the bono shark basking shark or something like it." 

 This led me to believe that I had struck a rich shark 

 bonanza in my sailor friend. So I pumped him dry, as 

 the sequel will tell. 



Sure enough, on picking up the Chronicle Monday 

 morning I read "A Great Sea Monster— a great man- 

 eating shark is now on exhibition at Central Park, 30ft. 

 long. Admission, two bits." 



I at once wended my way to Central Park, and sure 

 enough there I found a great red-mouthed Irishman, 

 under the picture of a great red-mouthed fish, from 

 whose glittering teeth the red gore dripped in profusion, 

 yelling, " Walk in. ladies and gintlemen, and see the 

 great man-eating shark, 30ft. long and weighing 'liven 

 thousand pounds. He's did, ladies, and he won't bite 

 you. Walk in, ladies and gintlemen. Only two bits to 

 see the greatest wonder in the world." 



I stepped inside and found Miguel taking in the 

 shekels and Bill keeping the flies out of the shark's 

 mouth. It was stretched on timbers on a truck and was 

 fully 29ft. long, with his mouth stretched wide open. 

 He did look rather fearful, as though he could gulp one 

 down at one small gulp. 



I at once cornered Bill and made him give me the his- 

 tory of the struggle after I left. He said that by Friday 

 evening the shark had nearly worn himself out, and in 

 the forenoon, by the time the steamship came along, 

 they had no trouble reaving a rope through his under 

 jaw and another around his tail and hoisting him aboard. 

 As he went up he was disemboweled and his liver saved 

 on the Emma, from which the captain thought he would 

 get 10 barrels of oil. Notwithstanding he seemed so near 

 dead, when they began to hoist him he gave some 

 trouble with his struggles, and he had some motion even 

 on Sunday morning. 



Returning, I went to my whaleman friend. "Why do 

 you call it a bone shark?" "Because they have bone in 

 their mouths, same as the right or Greenland whale." I 

 could not understand, I had seen no bone in its mouth 

 except teeth; so I earned him up to see it and explain. 

 He showed me that this shark had bone, whalebone, or 

 the great fringy process that we know as whalebone, by 

 which these great creatures gather the exceedingly small 

 life that swarms in the ocean for food. This led me to 

 know that we had before us the great fish properly known 

 as the basking shark (Squalus maximus or Selaehe max- 

 ima of different authorities), and really and truly the 

 most harmless and inoffensive great fish that swims the 

 ocean. It is found very rarely on every coast and on all 

 soundings. It has, it is true, immense strength and great 

 tenacity of life, brings forth its young alive, and is truly 

 one of the most strangely wonderful of living creatures, 

 belonging as it does to one of the most ravenous, cruel, 

 gluttonous families. It is slow, sluggish, inoffensive, 

 never under any circumstance trying to catch anything 

 of any size for food. It feeds exactly as does the right or 

 Greenland whale, by swimming very slowly along near 

 the surface with its great mouth wide open, against cur- 

 rent and tide, collecting its minute food in its "bone." 

 When a quantity is so gathered it is swallowed. As in 

 the case of the whale, whatever passes into the mouth has 

 to be swallowed, for it has no loose tongue nor other 

 means to throw it out. When full fed and in content, it 

 lies basking in the sun at the surface of the water, hence 

 basking shark. When disturbed by any cause it quickly 

 sinks out of sight. A gentleman has just assured me 

 that he saw one caught in the same way off the coast of 

 the Gulf of California, by becoming entangled in a net, 

 39ft. long. How this may happen is now easily explained. 

 The shark is quietly feeding along, with his great white 

 mouth wide open. The fine strong twine of the gill-net 

 strikes in his mouth, and when some is folded within he 

 closes it, tries to swallow and pushes on; more collects 

 ■within; his teeth all hook backward, those in his jaws 

 and more particularly the longer ones in his throat. The 

 seine is fast within, he has no possible way to get rid of 

 it. He begins to struggle, and the more he struggles the 

 more he becomes involved, and so on to the end. 



Byrne. 



That Same Old Sucker Freed Again.— Lancaster, 

 Pa., Aug. 16. — A number of boys were swimming in a 

 creek near the old Moravian town of Lititz, in this county, 

 a few days ago. One of them, in diving, found an old 

 demijohn, which he brought ashore. Through a space 

 where the wicker had been torn away the boys saw some- 

 thing moving about inside the jug. They poured out the 

 water, but the object being too large to come out with it, 

 they broke the demijohn and found a fat and lively 

 sucker over a foot long. The only explanation that can 

 be given for the presence of the big fish in the jug is that 

 it entered when small, and enjoying the novelty of the 

 retreat, remained there until it grew too large to come 

 out, even if it wanted to. 



Judge Longworth's Scientific Expedition.— Cincin- 

 nati, Aug. 17. — On Saturday next Judge Longworth's 

 steam yacht C. O. proceeds up the river on a scientific 

 expedition to investigate the fish fauna of the Ohio and 

 its tributaries. The work will be prosecuted by Prof. 

 Charles II. Gilbert, of the Cincinnati University, and Dr. 

 J. H. Henshall, the well-known ichthyologist. Collec- 

 tions will be made for the TJ. S. Fish Commission, Cin- 

 cinnati University and the Cincinnati Society of Natural 

 History. The exploration is expected to yield very import- 

 ant results, for which the scientific world will be indebted 

 to the liberality of Judge Longworth, who will join the 

 C. O. on his return from Mackinac. 



