awaited us, had not the rays themselves brought 

 their pastime to an end. 



Something had happened which caused a sud- 

 den change in their behavior. The former security 

 which marked the conduct of their employments, 

 now obviously existed no longer: their feelings, 

 unmistakably manifest in their deportment, were 

 those of fear. From the easy ponderosity that dis- 

 tinguished their movements while at play, the 

 three rays were galvanized into greater action by 

 fright, and sped swiftly out of view. What was 

 this mysterious danger which their sight or scent or 

 unknown sense had apprehended? I looked around, 

 but saw nothing. Then swinging the search-light 

 so as to sweep the water in all directions, I pres- 

 ently revealed what I can describe only as a fear- 

 some vision. Within fifty feet of our little boat, 

 motionless in the hazy distance of the water, was 

 a gigantic specimen of the blue shark. Trailing 

 from the region of its mouth was an ill-defined 

 object, but I immediately surmised that it must 

 have been some sort of fish which the great beast 

 had recently caught and not yet consumed. 



Notwithstanding my familiarity with shore 

 sharks — creatures common to this neighborhood, 



[199] 



