A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL 



crowding on to the gangway, a child fell into the water. In a moment 

 a shark shot forward, seized the child, and dragged it under the 

 water. There was a terrible shriek from the parents ; then the child 

 reappeared, but bathed in blood, and legless ; and now the unhappy 

 parents themselves begged that it should not be rescued, so it sank 

 again before their eyes. 



I myself witnessed neither this nor any similar scene, so that I 

 cannot vouch for its truth. But here is something which I have seen. 

 As our steamer lay in the Bay of Aden a number of large sharks 

 were swimming around it in search of refuse, but their presence 

 did not prevent the pretty little Somali boys who had come out 

 in their boats from exhibiting their skill in diving after coins which 

 were thrown into the water. Similarly, the South Sea islanders are 

 said to swim fearlessly in the near neighbourhood of sharks. The 

 explorer Pechuel-Loesche, during more than twenty years of travel, 

 never saw anyone killed or injured by sharks, nor could he ever 

 discover a reliable eye-witness of any such incident. One is therefore 

 obliged to conclude that the shark cannot be as bad as its reputation. 

 Fiction, especially if it is written for juvenile readers, is apt to 

 exaggerate the dangers of encountering animals, as the writers 

 foolishly imagine that an animal cannot interest their readers unless 

 it steals, or kills, or is killed. 



I fancy the lion and the tiger have been almost as much mahgned 

 as the shark. As a general thing these beasts of prey avoid human 

 beings ; but now and again it happens that an old animal whose 

 teeth are defective, and who can no longer capture wild animals, 

 sinks to the degenerate practice of lying in wait for human beings. 

 But it cannot be disputed that there have been fatalities due to 

 sharks, and here again it seems to be always the solitary and outcast 

 shark which becomes a man-eater. Jack London, writing of the 

 South Seas, calls such man-eaters tiger-sharks ; but the great majority 

 are content with fish. The man-eaters are great travellers, and have 

 been known even to swim through the Suez Canal and to work 

 mischief on the shores of the Mediterranean. 



There is also, on the coast of north-eastern Brazil, a fish of the 

 Mullet family, the Picuda, which is sometimes as much as six feet 

 in length, and which is said to enter harbours and to seize and 

 devour bathers. This fish is sometimes caught by the fishermen, but 

 its flesh is said to be poisonous at certain seasons. 



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