IS IT PELORUS JACK?

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1082, 22 March 1911, Page 6

IS IT PELORUS JACK?

A "FIND" AT D'URVILLE, STORY OF HIS DEATH DENIED. SEEN OX MONDAY. "Pelorus Jack's dead carcass ashore at New Harbour, DTrvillc Island. Slightly eaten by sharks." This was tho wording of a private message received from Jlotueka shortly after midday yesterday. Late in tho afternoon tho following Tress Association telegram was received from Nelson :— "At 10 o'clock on Slcuday morning the body of a large fish resembling Pelorus Jack in many particulars was washed up at Wclls's nionerty, on the youth part of D'Urville Island, : facing iho Beef Barrels. Mr. ' Webber, of the French Pass, who is iuiiiilinr with the famous fish, says that the derelict resembles Jack in ma::}' ways, but ht> could not proncunco definite opinion till the captain of tho Patcena can tay whether he saw Jack or not to-day. This day week Jack was seen by passengers to ; Wellington." Yesterday afternoon Mri G. Allport, Secretary for Marine, received a letter . from Mr. 0. Webber, a settler at the French Pass, in which he said that Wells Bros., of D'Urville Island, found what they believe to bo the carcass of Pelorus Jack. Mr. Webber, who has seen Jack many hundreds of times, was asked to identify the remains, and as a result the opinion was. expressed that the colour, size, and shape , exactly correspond with what they had seen of the fish in the water. Tho length of the carcass is, they stale, just one inch under 14ft., and the" girth between lift, and 10ft. "I should say/' rays Mr. Webber, "that he has been dead for a week or ten days, and has been considerably bitten by sharks, probably after death." "'Pelorus Jack , dead!" It was a little difficult to believe. He had been so long associated with the French Pass,that one might have pardonably assumed that, somewhere in its waters, there flowed or sprang the elixir of life. Be that as it may, it is known that "Jack" has been sporting in the waters between Pelorus Heads and D'Urvillo Island for some .twenty-one years at least, seldom omitting to pay his compliments to passing steamers by jx ten minutes' gambol round the bows. A friendly fish , this—so friendly and interesting indttd that Parliament issued a special Order-in-Council ' under tho Animals' Protection Act, protecting him from tho interference of men. Strangely enough, the time over which this Order extended ran out a few days ago, and, as far as can be ascertained, was not renewed. And, by the strangeest of coincidences, a littlo before tho term of the Order expired he had been missing from his customary haunts, and, during the past six weeks, he only came out occasionally to wave a friendly flipper. It is reported that he emerged l about a fortnight ago to see the steamer in which Miss Amy Castles passed, and Mdlle. Antonia Dolores was formally introduced to him as late as Thursday last. REPORT CONTRADICTED. Tho foregoing was tho news available yesterday afternoon. In the evening, however, quite a different story arrived. Tho man who was on tho look-otit on board the Pateena on Monday night, whilst the vessel was on her way from Picton to Nelson, states that he and several passengers saw the fish distinctly about 10 o'clock on the night in question. Also the officers of the Pateena do not believe that their old friend is dead yet. Another seafaring man, Captain Vickerman, master of the Anchor line's steamer Alexander, when speaking to a reporter yesterday about the case, said that in all probability the fish that has been found is a large blackfish. He states' that, recently, he passed a number of these fish dead in the vicinity of D'Urville Island, and some of them were from 15 to 18 feet long. He added' that'after they have been dead for a certain length of (imp this species of fish turns white, hence it is quite likely that one of these has been mistaken for "Jack." Then came a Press Association niessago from Nelson as follows':—"The 'Colonist' is in the position to contradict the report as to the death of Pelorus Jack. Mr. W. T. Bond, of Nelson, who returned home by the Pateena yesterday states that he and others saw Jack in the water on Monday night, and that he followed the Pateena for miles. Mr. Bond has seen him many times, but never saw him so frisky as he was on Monday night."