case of which is brown, and resembles leather; the egg is oblong in form, with tendrils curling from its corners. One morning, at Madras, a little boy about eight years old, happened to be washed from a catamaran, which was managed by his father. Before he could be rescued from the water, a shark drew him under, and he was seen no more; the father lost not a moment, but calmly rose, and placing between his teeth a large knife, which he carried sheathed in his cummerband, plunged beneath the billows. He disappeared for some time, but after a while was seen to rise, and then dive down again, as if actively engaged with his foe. It was a period of painful suspense to those who were anxiously watching the issue from the boats outside the surf. After a time the surf was visibly tinged with blood. The man was again seen to rise, and to disappear, so that the work of death was evidently incomplete. After some further time had elapsed, to the astonishment of all who were assembled on the beach, the body of a huge shark was seen, for a few minutes, above the whitened spray, which it completely crimsoned, and then disappeared; an instant after, the man rose above the surf, and made for the shore; he seemed nearly exhausted, but had not a single mark upon his body, which bore no evidence whatever of the perilous conflict in which he had been engaged. He had scarce landed, when the shark, which was a very large one, was cast on shore by the billows. It was quite dead, and was immediately dragged by the assembled natives beyond the reach of the surge. It presented a most frightful spectacle, exhibiting fatal proof of the struggle which had taken place between this ravenous tyrant of the deep and the bereaved father. When the shark was examined, it was found to have several deep gashes on its belly, from which its entrails protruded. The knife had evidently been plunged into the belly, and drawn downward with unerring precision, presenting an immense wound nearly two feet long. There were also several deep incisions about the gills, and below the fins; in short, it is impossible to describe the fearful evidences which the monster exhibited of the prowess and dexterity of the determined aggressor, who had so boldly perilled his life for his poor little child, and, as it was afterwards ascertained, his only child. As soon as the shark was drawn to a place of security, it was opened, when the head and limbs of the boy were taken from his stomach. The body was completely dismembered, and the head severed from it; the different parts, however, were not mutilated. It would seem that, after separation, the limbs were immediately swallowed,—that is to say, bolted. As soon as the poor father saw the mutilated remains of his child, he threw himself upon the ground in an agony of grief, and for a while refused all consolation. Let us to the Greenwood go. HEN sunbeam's threads are woven through The warp and woof of Nature's green, And glimmer forth, in golden hue, The trembling boughs between, We'll cull the wild anemonies, And there we'll sport the time away, And freaks of jocund jollity; Or, where the barbed sedges quiver, We'll wander by some baby river, And sing to it, as to a child, Amid its courses sweetly wild, While the broad water-flags display And trailing briars and bramble-bushes, There madrigals the summer birds Speaking of love in honied words The cookoo's cry shall be our clock; Then, to the greenwood come with me, MARTIN. |