However, One After The Other Took A Run, And Then
A "Header" Off The Rocks Into The Deep Blue Water Beneath.
In
the long line of bathers was a fine lad of fifteen, the son of
one of the sergeants of the regiment; and with the emulation of
his age he ranked himself among the men, and on arriving at the
edge he plunged head-foremost into the water and disappeared.
A
crowd of men were on the margin watching the bathing; the boy
rose to the surface within a few feet of them, but as he shook
the water from his hair, a cloudy shadow seemed to rise from the
deep beneath him, and in another moment the distinct outline of a
large shark was visible as his white belly flashed below. At the
same instant there was a scream of despair; the water was
crimsoned, and a bloody foam rose to the surface - the boy was
gone! Before the first shock of horror was well felt by those
around, a gallant fellow of the same regiment shot head first
into the bloody spot, and presently reappeared from his devoted
plunge, bearing in his arms one-half of the poor boy. The body
was bitten off at the waist, and the lower portion was the prize
of the ground shark.
For several days the soldiers were busily employed in fishing for
this monster, while the distracted mother sat in the burning sun,
watching in heart-broken eagerness, in the hope of recovering
some trace of her lost son. This, however, was not to be; the
shark was never seen again.
There is as much difference in the characters of sharks as among
other animals or men. Some are timid and sluggish, moving as
though too lazy to seek their food; and there is little doubt
that such would never attack man. Others, on the contrary, dash
through the water as a pike would seize its prey, and refuse or
fear nothing. There is likewise a striking distinction in the
habits of crocodiles; those that inhabit rivers being far more
destructive and fearless than those that infest the tanks. The
natives hold the former in great terror, while with the latter
they run risks which are sometimes fatal. I recollect a large
river in the southeast of Ceylon, which so abounds with ferocious
crocodiles that the natives would not enter the water in depths
above the knees, and even this they objected to, unless necessity
compelled them to cross the river. I was encamped on the banks
for some little time, and the natives took the trouble to warn me
especially not to enter; and, as proof of the danger, they showed
me a spot where three men had been devoured in the course of one
year, all three of whom are supposed to have ministered to the
appetite of the same crocodile.
Few reptiles are more disgusting in appearance than these brutes;
but, nevertheless, their utility counterbalances their bad
qualities, as they cleanse the water from all impurities.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 152 of 173
Words from 78146 to 78654
of 89475
