Note 87 — VIII.

An encounter in the water between a shark and an expert swimmer, armed only with a knife, is not so unequal an affair as might at first be supposed. The pearl fishers of the Gulfs of Panama and Nicoya only use a short stick, with which, if the sharks get above them, they stir up the mud, under cover of which they swim along the bottom for a little distance, and then shoot up to the surface. Of the equality in which a good swimmer armed with a knife feels himself in encountering a shark, there are numerous instances. Many years ago, when shipping was more plentiful in Kingston Harbour, Jamaica, than at the present day, vessels had occasionally to put up with somewhat awkward berths, when they used regularly to "foul their anchors," whereupon it became necessary, of course, to send some one down to free the cable. For this purpose, negro divers were employed, and one man attained a wide reputation from having himself, unscathed, slain in fair combat at different times, no less than five sharks! Ultimately the sharks steered clear of any black man who had a knife suspended round his neck.