722 PISCES-SHARK. 



ORDER II. — PL AGIOSTOMI. 



Fishes of this order have the bronchia; pectinated, the openings numerous, 

 without operculi or membranes ; palatine and postmandibulary bones armed 

 with teeth in place of jaws. 



THE SHARK. 



The white shark 1 is sometimes seen to rank even among the whales lor 

 magnitude, and is found from twenty to thirty feet long. Some assert that 

 they have seen them of four thousand pounds weight ; and we are told 

 particularly of one, that had a human corpse in his belly. The head is 

 large, and somewhat flattened ; the snout long, and the eyes large. The 

 mouth is enormously wide, as is the throat, and capable of swallowing a 

 man with great ease. But its furniture of teeth is still more terrible. Of 

 these there are six rows extremely hard, sharp pointed, and of a wedge-like 

 figure. It is asserted that there are seventy-two in each jaw, which make 

 one hundred and forty-four in the whole ; yet others think that their number 

 is uncertain ; and that, in proportion as the animal grows older, these terri- 

 ble instruments of destruction are found to increase. With these the jaws 

 both above and below appear planted all over ; but the animal has the power 

 of erecting or depressing them at pleasure. When the shark is at rest, they 

 lie quite flat in his mouth ; but when he prepares to seize his prey, he erects 

 all his dreadful apparatus, by the help of a set of muscles, that join them to 

 the jaw; and the animal he seizes, dies, pierced with a hundred wounds, in 

 a moment. 



Nor is this fish less terrible to behold as to the rest of his form ; his fins 

 are larger, in proportion ; he is furnished with great goggle eyes, which he 

 turns with ease on every side, so as to see his prey behind him as well as 

 before; and his whole aspect is marked with a character of malignity; his 

 skin also is rough, hard, and prickly ; being that substance which covers 

 instrument cases, called shagreen. 



No fish can swim so fast as the shark; he outstrips the swiftest ships. 

 Such amazing powers, with such great appetites for destruction, would 

 quickly unpeople even the ocean ; but providentially the shark's upper jaw 

 projects so far above the lower, that he is obliged to turn on one side (not on 

 his back, as is generally supposed,) to seize his prey. As this takes some 

 small time to perform, the animal pursued seizes that opportunity to make 

 his escape. 



1 Carcharias vulgaris, Cuv. The genus Carcharias has the snout prominent, conical 

 and depressed ; nostrils under its middle : teeth in many rows, edged, pointed, and often 

 dentated on their margin ; no spiracles ; first dorsal fin before the ventrals, and the second 

 nearly opposite the anal fin ; last openings of the bronchia? extending over the pectoral fins. 



