The fish took the boy's head into
its capacious mouth, mauling him severely about the head and shoulders,
and but for his valiant and determined struggles would doubtless have
succeeded in killing him.
Such an incident as the following does not convince blacks that the
sharks of the Barrier Reef are dangerous. The captain of a beche-de-mer
cutter was paddling in a dinghy along the edge of a detached reef not
many miles from Dunk Island, while several of his boys were swimming and
diving. Suddenly one of them was seized and so terribly mutilated that
he died in a few minutes. Although the captain was within 8 or 10 feet
of the boy, and three of his mates not more than a few yards off, though
all were wearing swimming goggles which enable them when diving to
distinguish objects at a considerable range, though the sea was calm and
clear and the water barely 10 feet deep, no one saw a shark or any other
fish capable of inflicting such injuries as had caused the death of
"Jimmy," nor was there any disturbance of the surface of the water. Years
before a countryman of the unfortunate "Jimmy" was mauled by a small
shark, but got away, though crippled for life.
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