NONSUCH 



monster, greater than even their shark, had received 

 him, and for mile after mile they followed faith- 

 fully. Then the bond, which had been so close and 

 for whose reason and mutual advantage the 

 most learned scientist can only hazard a guess, be- 

 came less strong, more tenuous, and finally the last 

 strand broke, and the two pilotfish, after one or 

 two uncertain half returns, dived from our 

 sight forever. Pilots without a ship, did they 

 keep together or separately search for another 

 berth? 



In the water the great blue shark stirs us to en- 

 thusiasm over the grace of his movements, but not 

 until I studied him outstretched full length on our 

 wharf did I realize how marvelous was his form. 

 Even without the equalizing balance of buoyancy 

 of the water, pressed down by the overwhelming 

 pull of gravity in the air, even so, his outline was 

 very beautiful; long, slender, stream-lined to a 

 supreme degree of delicacy and efficiency, which 

 would be meaningless in a yacht; his fin keels for 

 steadying and orienting, the mighty upward- 

 reaching tail and the enormously elongated, grace- 

 ful pectorals. These wonderful falcate fins are 

 models for all swift-swimming fish of higher grade, 

 and have been imitated by those aquatic backsliders, 

 seals, whales and penguins. And now I realized 

 that I should have followed the ancient custom of 

 the sea, and when I began to dilate on the beauty of 

 curve and grace of movement of the fish, I should 

 have spoken as one does of a beautiful ship, of her 



176 



