16 GIANT FISHES 



Captain was there placed on trial for his life " — (Mr. Cundell 

 says "for violation of the Navigation Laws"). "As there 

 was no documentary evidence against him he was about to be 

 discharged when another British vessel arrived in port. The 

 Captain of this cruiser reported that when off the coast of 

 Haiti a shark had been captured, and when opened the 

 privateer's papers had been found in the stomach. The papers 

 thus marvellously recovered were taken into court, and solely 

 on the evidence which they afforded the Captain and crew of 

 the privateer were condemned. The original papers were 

 preserved and placed on exhibition in the Institute of Jamaica 

 in Kingston, where the ' shark's papers ', as they were called, 

 have always been an object of great interest. (Signed) A. 

 Hyatt Verrill, New York, Nov. 20, 1915." 



According to the great Swedish naturalist, Linnaeus, it was 

 the Man-eater Shark that swallowed the prophet Jonah, but 

 this is only one of several claimants to credit for this feat. 

 " Jonam Prophetum," he writes, " ut veteris Herculem 

 trinoctem, in hujus ventriculo tridui spateo baeisse, verosimile 

 est." 



The question as to whether or no a shark will attack and 

 devour a man is one which has always been hotly debated, and 

 which still remains a matter of considerable controversy. The 

 normal diet of nearly all sharks consists of living animals, but 

 not a few will turn scavenger when occasion offers, and will 

 follow ships for days at a time in the hope of securing food 

 thrown overboard The presence of unusual numbers of 

 dangerous sharks in Sydney Hr^bour at one time was believed 

 to be due to the discharge of blood and offal from the local 

 abattoirs into the harbour waters, and there can be little 

 doubt that sharks with their keen sense of smell may be 

 attracted by the scent of blood. The stomach of one Great 

 White Shark was found to contain "a tin can, a number of 

 mutton bones, the hind quarters of a pig, the head and fore- 

 quarters of a bull-dog, a quantity of horseflesh, and other and 

 smaller things — as the auction bill says — too numerous to 

 mention" — eloquent testimony to this shark's powers as a 

 scavenger. It must be admitted that the bodies of drowned 

 men and women would not come amiss to a hungry shark, 

 and human corpses partially eaten after death are perhaps 



