338 I N A G U A 



fins and its force was sufficient to stir up the sand at my feet in 

 little clouds of silt. 



Quite unexpectedly, the remoras, which were still restlessly 

 searching among the urchin crumbs, did not follow but per- 

 sisted in their quest. They remained around for perhaps five 

 minutes longer and then, one after the other, melted into the 

 azure distance. They neither followed the paths of the nurses 

 nor seemed to be aware of what direction they had gone. 



At first examination there is not much relation between 

 beefsteak and sharks. Yet I am certain that but for sharks our 

 interest in beefsteak would be very casual. For as far as we 

 know sharks invented teeth, and without teeth our beefsteak 

 potentialities would be limited to gulping and hasty swallow- 

 ing, assuming that we would even be eating this dehcacy. In 

 fact, a shark may be truthfully and literally described as being 

 an animal which is covered from one end to the other with 

 teeth; skin teeth to be exact, or as they are more properly termed 

 *'dermal denticles." 



The hide of a shark, which appears so smooth and velvety, 

 is not soft at all but tough and rasping with a touch like a file. 

 I know one old-fashioned cabinetmaker who so preferred his 

 well-worn piece of shark-skin for certain finishes that he would 

 use it in preference to sandpaper. Shark-skin was a common 

 polishing agent long before sandpaper was conceived. This 

 roughness is caused by the presence of hundreds of thousands 

 of miniature "teeth" which protrude through the skin. These 

 teeth, which en masse are known as shagreen, are true teeth in 

 that their structure exactly resembles that of the dentition of 

 all animals above the grade of the sharks. Like true teeth these 

 skin teeth contain a "pulp" with blood vessels, nerves and con- 

 nective tissue, dentine which is that ivory-like substance char- 

 acteristic of all teeth, and finally on the outside a layer of hard 

 enamel. Happily, sharks are not subject to toothache. 



