38 GIANT FISHES 



has described how during this process " when the water for 

 an acre round the ship was stained a ghastly yellow from 

 outpouring blood, the scrambling sharks would make the 

 sea a living mass as each fish tried to bury its teeth in the 

 exposed surfaces of dark red muscle. Now and then a shark 

 would flounder right out on top of the whale, and cling there 

 until a descending ' blubber-spade ' had put an end to all its 

 ambition. If the ' cutting in ' of a whale was at any time 

 deferred several hours . . . the sharks would seemingly 

 become impatient ; they would then attack the carcass, and, 

 thrusting their heads partly above the surface, would bite 

 large mouthfuls out of the blubber." 



It is an interesting fact that captured Sharks often turn 

 the stomach inside out and evert this through the mouth to 

 the extent of a foot or more. An American authority has 

 suggested that this may denote " a habit of ejecting indiges- 

 tible material such as most sharks frequently swallow " 



A widespread and popular fallacy concerning the feeding of 

 Sharks may be mentioned here. The statement is often 

 made that, owing to the position of the mouth on the under- 

 side of the head, it is necessary for the Shark to turn over on 

 to its back in order to seize its prey. A moment's considera- 

 tion should suffice to show what little chance it would have of 

 securing an active fish in this way, and actually the Shark 

 raises the fore part of its head when within striking distance 

 of the prospective victim, often pushing its snout out of the 

 water, and thus brings the jaws into a suitable position for 

 an effective bite. When dealing with a lump of meat or 

 garbage flung overboard in the wake of a ship, a Shark will 

 lazily turn over in order conveniently to swallow the meal 

 as it sinks slowly through the water, and, since it is under 

 such conditions that most people observe the feeding of 

 Sharks, it is possible to understand how this misconception 

 has arisen. 



These sharks have an evil reputation as " man-eaters ", 

 but happily this is largely undeserved, and authentic cases of 

 unprovoked attacks upon living human beings are compara- 

 tively rare. They will not hesitate to feed upon corpses, and 

 this habit would be sufficient to account for most of the 

 records of human remains taken from the stomachs of captured 



