SENSATIONS.

Patea Mail, Volume II, Issue 123, 14 June 1876, Page 2

SENSATIONS.

. . Thu editor who wrote the following ought to know:—ln dull times, and’ during a dearth of news, anything in the shape of a “local” is a godsend to editors, and many and ingenious are the schemes raised to get a sufficient supply of this article to satisfy the, appetites of hungry subscribers and news- __ jj paper readers. Under such trying circumstances, “a big turnip,” “an overgrown cabbage,” “ a wonderful strawberry,” or anything of this kind in the vegetable world, especially in agricultural districts, is an editorial luxury. Wo know of one inventive literary genius on a small country paper in theSouth, who during a dull season, got completely “ stuck for news.” To keep' his readers, supplied, he had to have recourse to his imagination, and each issue came out with a wonderful discovery of a new mineral in a part of the country over which no white man' had ever trodden ; a double suicide ; some person had committed suicide by poisoning himself, and then jumping into the river and being carried out to sea; another had been drowned, or had bis limbs fractured by the falling of a tree. On one occasion this literary wonder opened a stable door and let loose a horse. The issue ing had an article upon “ Larrikinism;” another advising mothers to be careful in not allowing their children to play, about the streets, and stand a chance of being mangled by the kick of vicious horses, thus allowed to roam about ; a local walking into the police for permitting such scoundrelly acts to be perpetrated ; a letter to the editor askingwhy horses wore allowed to wander at large to the inconvenience of pedestrians ; and finally a leader upon the whole. By this means his paper kept up appearances till flusher times set in.

Life beneath the waves. Captain Boy ton, of swimming-suit notoriety, writes;— Soon , afterwards I worked down into the Gulf of Mexico. The first coral I raised was Catoche. Knocking around about there I heard of the loss of the, schooner Foam. The first mate and three men Were saved, but the captain, his daughter, and three men got lost. I slung round to see if she could be raised. After we’d spent the best part of a week we sailed over her and dropped anchor. It was a lovely Sunday morning when we struck her. She lay in sixty feet of water, on a bottom as white as the moon. Looking down I could see her leaning over on a coral reef. When I got down to her I saw she had torn a great gap in the reef when she ran against it. The mainmast was gone, and hung on the fore. I climbed up. I saw whole shoals of fish playing in and out of the hatches. First I went in to look for the bodies, for I never like to work while there is any of them about.- Finding the forecastle empty, I wont to the two state cabins. It was rather dark, and I had to feel in the lower bunks. There was nothing in the first, and in the other the door was, locked, I prized it open and shot back the lock with my adze. It flew open, and out something fell right against me. I fefNit once it was a woman’s body. I was nert exactly frightened, but it shook me rather. I slung it from mo, and went out into the light a bit until I got hold of myself. Then I turned back and brought her out —poor thing I She’d been very pretty, and I carried her in my arms ; with tier white face nestling against my shoulder, she seemed as if she were only sleeping. I made her fast to the line as carefully as I could to send her up, and the fish played about her as if they were sorry she was going. At last I gave the signal and she went slowly up, her hair floating round her head like a pillow of golden seaweed. That was the only body I found there, and I managed after to raise a considerable amount of the cargo. One of my expeditions was among the silver banks of the Antilles, the loveliest place I ever saw, where the white coral grows into curious tree-like shapes. As I stopped along the bottom it seemed as if I were in a frosted forest. Here and there trailed long fronds of green and crimson seaweed. Silver-bellied fish flashed about among the deep-brown and purple sea ferns which rose as high as my head. Far as I could sec all round in the transparent water were different coloured leaves, and on the floor piles of shells so bright in colour that it seemed as if I had stumbled on a place where they kept a stock of broken rainbows. I could not work for a bit, and bad a quarter determination to sit down a while and wait for a mermaid. I guess if those sea girls live anywhere they select that spot. After walking the inside out of half an hour, I thought I had better go to work and blast the treasure. A little bit on from where I sat were the remains of a treasure ship. It was a Britisher, 1 think, and corals had formed all around her, or rather what was left of her. The coral on the bottom and around her showed black spots. That meant a deposit of either iron or silver. I made fairly good hauls every lime I went down, and sold one piece I found to Barmmi, of New York. After I left there I had a curious adventure with a si lark. I was down on a. nasty rock bottom. A man never feels comfortable on them : he can’t toll what big creature may bo lading under the huge quarter-deck sea-leaves which grow there. The first part of the time I was visited by a porcupine fish, which kept sticking its quills up and bobbing in front of my helmet. Soon after I saw a big shadow fall across me and looking up there was an infernal shark . playing around my tubing. It makes mo feel chilly in the back when they’re about. He came down to me slick, as I loojfecd up. I made at him, and he sheered off. For half-an-hour he worked at it till I could stand it no longer. If yon can keep your head level it is all right, and you’re pretty safe if they’re not on you sharp. This ugly brute was 20 feet long, I should think, for when I lay down all my length on the bottom lie stretched a considerable way ahead of mo, and I could see him beyond my feet. They must turn over to bite, and my lying down bothered him. Ho swam over me three or four times, and then skulked off to a big thicket of seaweed to consider. I knew he’d come back when he’d settled his mind. It seemed a, long time waiting for him. At last lie came viciously over me, but, like the time before, too far from my arms. The next time I had my chance, and ripped him with my knife as neatly as I could. A shark always remembers he’s got business somewhere else when cut so off this fellow goes. It is a curious thing, 100, that all sharks will follow in the trail he leaves, .1 got on my hands and knees, and as he swam off I noticed four dark shadows slip under him. I saw no more that time. They did not like my company.