^^4 I N A G U A 



no indication of what force, or series of circumstances, drove 

 these greatest of all beings from the face of the earth. Perhaps 

 by their very ferocity they may have devoured everything 

 within their geographical range and then eliminated them- 

 selves by cannibalism. Perhaps some unknown elasmobranchian 

 disease may have vanquished them. Some smaller and equally 

 hungry creature may have destroyed their young or they may 

 have become too specialized in some manner to breed with 

 facility. We do not know. 



Perhaps one of the reasons the sharks have persisted so long 

 is because of their simplicity. Some of the most efficient ma- 

 chines are the least complex. The sharks in their truly in- 

 credible style have managed to remain quite primitive, yet re- 

 markably facile. Many of the animals with which they started 

 their history became exceedingly intricate, exceedingly special- 

 ized—and also exceedingly extinct. The early sharks, which 

 were the starting point for a very diverse group of fishes, in- 

 cluding practically all modern forms, provided the basic archi- 

 tecture on which these later creatures were patterned. The 

 sharks, too, have evolved but they have been very conserva- 

 tive about it. One is reminded of the architecture of the Greeks. 

 It has been the inspiration of much that has followed, yet few 

 modern structures are as exquisite as the Parthenon with its 

 essential simplicity. This is why the sharks are still found 

 wherever there is sufficient sea water to hold them. From the 

 sunlit surface to the blue-blackness of a thousand fathoms and 

 from the berg encrusted arctic to the tropics, sharks thrive and 

 thrive efficiently. 



Sharks to land dwellers seem rather nebulous, yet not an 

 hour's travel from the Atlantic Coast in the vicinity of New 

 York and Philadelphia, there are legions of them. Once, in the 

 winter, I spent a week on a trawler operating out of Norfolk, 

 Virginia. The trawler was out after porgies and similar food 



