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monious in gratifying his appetite, is designated by the same ' 
terms; while the Zion, merely from some poetical and 
fictitious notion, that has been long current, of standing in 
awe of mankind, is invested with a character for nobleness 
and generosity to which he has no title whatever. 
“The shark is perhaps more undistinguishing in his 
appetite than any other fish, and is sometimes observed to 
swallow matters from which he can derive no nutriment; but 
this goes merely to prove, that whatever may be the nature 
of his appetites, he has not always the power of gratifying 
them; for no person can be so weak as to believe that the 
shark swallows lumps of rusty iron by way of a relish. The 
fact is, that his form is so awkward, and his motion so 
sluggish, that there is hardly any species of fish but can 
easily evade his attacks. He is thus condemned to many 
long fasts, which urge him to snatch at every thing animate - 
and inanimate that comes in his way. A large shark one 
day knocked the rudder of our boat off its hinges, with a 
stroke of his tail, and made repeated attempts to bite it as it 
floated along. But this ought not to be regarded so much 
as a proof of the animal’s voracity, as of his want of the 
faculty of discrimination. From all I could observe, every 
other species of fish seemed equally ravenous with the shark; 
and as they were much more active in their movements, 
could glut themselves with less trouble. The whole appeared 
a scene of unceasing carnage,—the small falling a prey to the 
large, and the weak to the vigorous. It was nothing uncom- 
mon with us, after hooking a small fish, to pull up also à 
large one, that had swallowed it, hook and all, on its way. 
Nature employs various means to qualify this universal rage 
for destruction. The projecting snout of the shark; often , 
gives the alarm to its prey, and pushes it out of its reach ; 
the teeth of the Boskop, and of several others of the larger 
Spari, are mere hemispherical stumps, ill adapted for taking 
a firm hold; but the greatest protectors are the scales, by 
means of which the prey, if too large to be gorged at — 
“isengages itself from its enemy by a jerk, leaving many 
them sticking in its teeth, — — 
Ld 
