A Fish Yarn

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 43, 27 September 1892, Page 4

A Fish Yarn

, ■♦ There is no argument valid upon a premise of inherent impossibility. It used to be concluded beyond question that there were no black swans, because it is impossible to conceive a black swan. But one harmless and unconscious black swan irom the Antipodes put all the ingenious , thinkers to rout. Hume argued from his conception of a true induction, that major premise must include all possible cases. This he thought conclusive against a erreat deal ot popular belief. Kut what test have we of the possible ? It is harder to believe that we have explored and classified the whole field of knowledge, 'ban that a ravenous fish — with no higher and no lower thought than a plentiful dinner— should have swallowed and then disgorged a man. Besides, we are not without evidence that such piscine conduct is at least possible. Jonah was sailing in the Mediterranean — right along its whole length — from Joppa in Palestine to Tar skish, in Spain ; and it is in this very sea that even at the present day a hu«<e fish, the white shark, is found ; and not only this, but the bones of a much larger species now extinct. For the word used in the Bible is a general term for a large fish, and it includes in various writers, sharks, tunnies, whales, dolphins,: and Beals. This white shark attains such a size that it has been known to weigh four tons and a half. One that was exhibited last century over Europe weighed nearly two tons, and very nearly re-enacted the part of Jonah's fish. A British war-vessel was sailing in the Mediterranean, when a man fell overboard. A huge shark instantly rose, and the unlucky seaman disappeared within its mouth. The captain fired a gun at it irom the deck, and as the shot struck its back it cast the man out again, and he was rescued by his companions. They forthwith harpooned the fish, dried him, and presented him to his victim. In the beginning of this century a shark was taken at Surinam, and in it was discovered the body of a woman excepting the head. Instances are recorded upon good authority of specimens being found in the same sea j one with a sea-calf in its stomach as big as an ox, another with a whole horse, and another with two tunnies and a man. That a man could live there tor a considerable time seems by no means impossible. — Quiver.