THE DESTINY OF A BLUE SHARK 



They rear their fondlings, like some careful nurse, 

 Observe their motions and restrain their course. 

 Eye every wave, and shew the doubtful way, 

 Teach where to hunt, and where to find their prey. 

 When big with secret guilt the waters heave, 

 They in their mouths their shelter'd young receive, 

 But when the waves at their own leisure roll, 

 And no fierce robber drives the scatter'd shoal, 

 Again the parent's pointed jaws compress'd, 

 By force expel them from their pleasing rest." 



It is a delightful idea and there is no objection to 

 belief in it, if one does not demand proof or prob- 

 ability. There is no doubt of the attachment between 

 parent and young sharks. In diving I have watched 

 a mother shark and two young swimming together, 

 week after week. The pair of youngsters sticking as 

 close to her as pilotfishes. And I have seen a mother 

 and father cichlid fish in Guiana take their entire 

 brood of one hundred or more into their mouths for 

 protection, and puff them out again unharmed 

 when danger is past, but, quod erat non demon- 

 strandum, these facts do not prove that blue sharks 

 do likewise. If, someday, as I intend, I can drift 

 about in mid-Atlantic for six months in a suitable 

 steamer and spend all calm days in excursions with 

 water glasses, glass-bottomed boats, and in helmet, 

 dangling, I will know far more about the ways of 

 sharks and other sea-folk than I do at present. 



The mother blue shark measured nine feet, eight 

 inches in length and weighed a little over two hun- 



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