Animals: In Gull Pond

As a boy, Carl Y. Matthews of Cleveland used to bathe in Gull Pond, a saltwater inlet near Greenport, L. I. He took his daughter, Irene, 7, all the way from Cleveland not only to visit the scenes of his childhood but to bathe in Gull Pond. He, clothed, stood on the beach and watched her. She waded out until the water was splashing about her middle.

Suddenly Carl Y. Matthews saw something else—a dark triangular fin slicing through the water, going toward his daughter. He knew what it belonged to, though never had he heard of a shark in Gull Pond. Quickly seizing a rusty iron bar that was lying on the beach, Carl Y. Matthews interposed himself between the fish and its prey, met its rush, smashed it on the head, dragged it ashore, killed it. It was a blue shark 6 ft. 7 in. long.