NICHOLvS & MURPHY : LONCi ISLAND SHARKS. 27 
Excerpt from AVei' ]'ork 'fiiiws, .luoiist j, /g/^. 
***" I ajj;itated the question of shark t>ite.s a nuinl)er of years ago in the columns 
of Forest and SfrciDii and succeeded in getting two fairly reliable references to such 
cases. One occurred at Bombay, where a man went bathing from a wharf whence it 
was customary to dump offal. The shark naturally thought all was offal that came 
his way, and took his leg off. .\nother occurred in the Hawaiian Islands, where a 
man started to swim for a boat that had broken adrift from a schooner. A shark 
came along, found that the man was harmless, and took him in out of the wet." 
(Signed) F. .\. Lucas, Director .\mericaii Museum of Natural History. 
Excerpt from AVa' )'ork '/lines, .htgiist si), /g/^. 
"If any one who doubts that sharks in temperate waters do attack hunuui 
beings will visit Sydney, .\. S W , and pursue his inquiry there, his doubts will be 
speedily resolved. Offhand, I can remember three specific in.stances of death from 
attacks by sharks in Sydney Harbor. The first was that of a boy sitting on a wharf 
at Ryde, on the Paramatta River, one of the numerous arms of the harbor. His legs 
were dangling in the water and a shark came up, seized a foot, and disappeared with 
the boy, whose body was never seen again. The second was a youth of about twenty 
\'ears, who was swimming across one of the bays. Halfway across he was seized by 
a shark, and the body was never recovered. The third instance was in Lane Cove. 
A youth was in swimming, but not out of his depth, when a shark seized him. By 
desperate eflforts he managed to escajie, l)ut was so badly bitten that he died within 
a few hours. 
Originall} there were no dangerous sharks in the harbor, the generally accepteil 
explanation of their presence being the discharge of blood and offal from the meat 
abattoirs at Globe Island into the harbor waters. This unsanitary system has long 
since been abolished and the abattoirs removed, so that the bad ])reeminence of Sydney- 
harbor will, in due course, doubtless become a thing of the ])ast."" (Signed) N. .S. \V. 
East Orange, N. J. 
Excerpt from AV'a' )'ork 7'iiJies, .h/i^//s/ si, igi^- 
**■" ".About I S70 a schooner bound from some Eastern port to New York became 
becalmed off Horton's Point on Long Island Sound, and while the vessel lay waiting 
for a breeze one of the crew went swimming from her. While he was enjoying him- 
self at some distance from the schooner his fellow shipmates descried a shark making 
for him. Shouting warning to him they got out a boat for his rescue, but before they 
reached him the .shark grabbed him by the hip. He endeavored to blind the fish. an<l 
either did, or the approaching boat frightened it off, for his shipmates took him in the 
boat and by rowing two miles brought him ashore, where they obtained a wagon and 
after a drive at least as far, obtained a doctor, who attended to the wounded man. 
He was taken to Greenport, where he received necessary care for several weeks and 
finally was able to be taken to his home. I did not see the boat, man, or shark, but 
heard about the case at Greenport while the sailor was there and I suppose there are 
some of the older Greenport people that remember about it."*** (Signed) B. G. 
Davis, Glen Cove, N. Y. 
