SLUMBERERS OF THE SURGE 303 



as my book-and-legend-induced fear of sharks 

 dominated, I saw them as sinuous, crafty, sinister, 

 cruel-mouthed, sneering. When I came at last to 

 know them for harmless scavengers, all these 

 characteristics slipped away, and I saw them as 

 they really are, — indolent, awkward, chinless 

 cowards. They are to a barracuda as a vulture to 

 an eagle; a ladyfish has a thousand times less 

 weight and double their courage. 



As regards tiger sharks, which, by the way, at- 

 tain a length of thirty feet in my kingdom, I re- 

 serve judgment. I have had medium-sized ones 

 swim up to within six feet and show signs of noth- 

 ing more alarming than curiosity, but I have also 

 seen a tiger shark snap up a baby sea-lion close to 

 a rookery of big males, as though it were a minnow, 

 and I have observed and shared the respect with 

 which fish sometimes greet his appearance. I 

 should catalogue him as an uncertain character — 

 safe enough usually, but to be interviewed with the 

 iron ladder between us. 



Groupers are another tribe of Nomads, one with- 

 out any sense of humor, or the sophisticated casual- 

 ness which seems to me to characterize most sharks. 

 Groupers take life in grim earnest and while they 

 lack the pessimistic viciousness of barracudas and 

 morays, yet they are persons of uncertain temper. 

 Lack of size alone keeps them from being as much 

 feared as tiger sharks. I was never wholly com- 

 fortable when these great brutes came up in their 

 loose schools of six or eight, swimming so close 

 that I often kicked at them or stabbed with my bar- 



