to the marketmen.

"The prettiest battle I ever witnessed was between a young Cuban and two
sharks," said an American sea captain. "We had reached Havana and were
lying half a mile from the docks, awaiting the signal to go on. Several
fruit peddlers had boarded us, among them a swarthy, bare legged young
fellow who looked like a pirate. The purser was standing by the rail,
holding his five year old son in his arms, watching a couple of monster
sharks that were hanging about the vessel, when the child slipped from
his grasp and fell into the water. The father plunged overboard and
seized him, and the sharks at once made to the pair. The bare-legged
young buccaneer dropped the fruit-basket and went over the rail like a
flash. As the first shark turned on its back, the invariable prelude to
biting, the Cuban rose, and with a long, keen knife fairly disemboweled
it. The other was not to be disposed of so easily though. The purser and
his child had been pulled on deck, and the combatants had a fair field.
The Cuban dived, but the shark did not wait for him to come up and
changed his location. Finally the shark advanced straight upon his
antagonist, his ugly fin cutting through the water like a knife, turned
quickly upon his back, and the huge jaws came together with a vicious
snap, but the Cuban was not between them. He had sunk just in time to
avoid the shark, and, as the latter passed, shot the steel into it. The
old sea wolf made the water boil, and strove desperately to strike his
antagonist with his tail but the latter kept well amidships and
literally cut him in pieces."

As one of the Peninsular and Oriental steamers was steaming up the Red
Sea, the lookout forward called the attention of the officer of the
watch to the fact that a huge shark was jammed in between the
bobstay-shackle and the stem. Investigation showed that the monster,
which was over thirty feet long, was almost cut in two. The stem had
struck him just below the gills, and, while his head protruded on the
starboard side, his body had slewed in under the port bow. The sharp
iron stem had cut into the creature to the depth of a foot, and all
efforts to get it clear were unavailing. The captain at last ordered the
vessel full speed astern, and that sent the man eater adrift. The
accepted theory was that the shark had been asleep on the surface of the
sea when struck by the swiftly-moving steamer.

PUZZLEDOM.

No. 663

Original contribu